Gentlemen, Ladies and those otherwise addressed - we know you've been waiting for a good thing, and the survey results are finally ready!
The answers were collected from you all during August 2020 with 1428 unique replies. That's a participation of 0.5% of all subscribers! That's really not too bad, when you keep in mind how popular these kind of surveys are. But we here at /peloton want to show you that this is all about presenting the information in the subreddit to cater better to our audience!
Updated after a few hours to include some more historical data the final edit that for some reason wasn't copied properly

Year	2013	2014	2015	2016	2018 Mar	2018 Aug	2019	2020
Results	2013-06-12	2014-06-25	2015-08-07	2016-11-17	2018-03-06	2018-08-20	2019-07-22	2020-10-12
Replies	351	598	1395	892	630	928	986	1428

Without further ado, let's get cracking on the response

You and Cycling

1. Where do you live?

Country	2015	2016	2018 Mar	2018 Aug	2019	2020
USA	32%	28.3%	22.84%	25.32%	20.23%	24.59%
UK	18.6%	17.6%	14.70%	20.13%	15.48%	14.80%
Netherlands	6.4%	9.4%	11.50%	11.58%	10.01%	11.01%
Germany	3.73%	3.4%	4.95%	6.39%	7.84%	6.65%
Denmark	3.9%	3.6%	4.31%	3.79%	7.64%	5.79%
Belgium	3.8%	2.7%	8.15%	3.57%	5.78%	5.36%
France	2.01%	1.08%	2.88%	2.27%	5.26%	3.50%
Canada	4.9%	7%	6.39%	4.22%	4.95%	4.50%
Australia	5.2%	4.7%	3.83%	4.00%	4.33%	3.93%
Slovenia		0.73%	0.32%	1.30%	1.14%	2.14%
Norway	2.58%	1.8%	1.60%	1.95%	2.58%	1.86%
Sweden	1.08%	1.09%	1.44%	1.41%	1.75%	1.43%
Ireland	1.00%	1.09%	1.44%	1.19%	0.72%	1.36%
Portugal	1.65%	1.8%	2.40%	1.52%	1.34%	1.14%
Italy		1.45%	1.44%	0.65%	1.03%	1.07%

Largely the same picture as ever, with the US leading the way, the UK in second and then a sliding scale of Europeans countries. Slovenia continues to pick its way up the pile for obvious reasons!
World Map to demonstrate

2. What's your age?

	u17	17-19	20-25	26-30	31-35	36-40	41-50	51+	Total
2015	2.22%	12.04%	41.51%	24.66%	10.68%	4.87%	2.94%	1.08%	1395
2016	1.5%	8.9%	40.8%	24%	12%	5.4%	5.2%	2%	887
2018 Mar	1%	7.1%	33.5%	27.4%	16.2%	7%	5.7%	2.1%	617
2018 Aug	1.7%	9%	33.9%	26.4%	15.5%	7%	5%	1.5%	905
2019	1.5%	6.6%	33.2%	27.5%	16.4%	7.1%	5.8%	2%	972
2020	1.3%	6.8%	31.7%	28%	16.6%	7.2%	5%	2.5%	1420

Pretty much the same as last year, with the usual reddit demographics of majority 20 somethings dominating.

3. What's your gender?

	'13	'14	'15	'16	'18 (1)	'18 (2)	'19	'20
Male	97.2%	97%	94.9%	93.4%	93.3%	93.6%	95.1%	94.9%
Female	2.8%	2.7%	4.8%	5.3%	5.3%	5.4%	3.7%	4.8%
Other	-	0.33%	0.29%	0.78%	0.76%	-	-
Non-Binary	-	-	-	-	0.64%	0.99%	1.2%	0.4%

More normality here for reddit.

4. How much of the men's season do you watch/follow?

Type	March '18 (%)	August '18 (%)	2019 (%)	2020 (%)
Grand Tours	84.7	92.0	90.2	87.3
Monuments	79.1	74.9	79	75.9
WT Stage races	67.4	62.4	70.5	71.7
WT One day races	73.3	59.8	62.3	60.7
Non WT Stage races	32.6	16.7	17.4	25
Non WT One day races	34.8	13.7	17.4	20.7
Literally everything I can consume	35.9	18.1	21.1	27.1

Whilst GT following may be down (somehow), all the lower level stuff is up, which makes sense considering how desperate we have been for any racing during the season shutdown.

5. Do you maintain an interest in women's professional road racing?

Do you maintain an interest in women's professional road racing?	'19	'20
Yes	49.8	49.2
No	50.2	50.8

Still very much a half/half interest in women's cycling on the subreddit.

6. How much of the women's season do you follow?

The following is true for the half of you that follows womens cycling.

How Much	%
Just the biggest televised events	63.15%
Most of the live televised/delayed coverage stuff	29.08%
All televised racing	5.09%
Down to .Pro & beyond	2.69%

7. How long have you been watching cycling?

How Long	%
Under a year	2,95%
1-3 years	19,50%
4-6 years	19,85%
7-9 years	14,10%
10-12 years	13,81%
13-15 years	7,15%
15-20 years	10,73%
20-25 years	6,17%
25 years +	5,75%

Simplified the years a little this time, but whilst we have a fair number of newbies, most people have picked the sport up since around 2013/14.

Sporting Favourites

8. Do you have like/dislike feelings about WT teams?

Once more, 14.4% of people really don't have feelings on the subject.
Of those that do:

	AG2R	Astana	Bahrain	Bora	CCC	Cofidis	Quick-Step	EF	FDJ
Like	352	213	127	770	156	116	847	724	423
Meh	775	620	773	415	889	896	310	448	700
Dislike	52	356	263	31	112	141	71	37	53
Karma	300	-143	-70	739	44	-25	776	677	370

	Israel	Lotto	Michelton	Movistar	NTT	Ineos	Jumbo	Sunweb	Trek	UAE
Like	135	364	517	231	101	304	925	279	383	118
Meh	740	764	626	646	931	414	282	805	765	734
Dislike	302	40	52	326	121	562	53	97	42	331
Karma	-167	324	465	-95	-20	-258	872	182	341	-213

So, the most popular team this year is Jumbo-Visma, followed by Quick-Step & Bora-hansgrohe. Least popular are Ineos & UAE.
As per usual, no one cares about NTT & CCC, with nearly 81% of users rating NTT as meh. Pretty damning stuff.
Lastly, we have the usual historical comparison of how teams have fared over time, normalised to respondents to that question on the survey.
Things to note then, firstly that the Astana redemption arc is over, seeing them back in the negative, maybe Fulgsangs spring issues helped aid that? The petrodollar teams of UAE & Bahrain are stubbornly negative too, with Israel keeping up the Katusha negative streak. Meanwhile, at the top end, EF & Jumbo go from strength to strength, whilst some others like Sunweb are sliding over time - their transfer policies no doubt helping that.

10. Do you ride a bike regularly?

Answer	2018Mar	2018Aug	2019	2020
For fun	61.5%	63.4%	59.9%	62.9%
For fitness	59.3%	59.6%	54.8%	59.8%
For commuting	46%	46%	45.6%	40%
For racing	20.6%	20.6%	15.9%	17.7%
No, I don't	14.2%	12.9%	14.8%	13.6%

Still a fairly small group of racers out of all of us

11. Out of the sports you practice, is cycling your favourite?

Yes	No
58,29%	41,71%

A new addition to the survey prompted by a good point last time, just over half of us rate cycling as the favourite sport we actually do.

12. What other sports do you follow?

Sport	#
Association Football / Soccer	50.78%
Formula 1	35.81%
American Football	26.27%
Basketball	22.46%
Track & Field	17.58%
Esports (yes, this includes DotA)	17.30%
Rugby	14.27%
Skiing	14.12%
Ice Hockey	13.63%
Baseball	12.15%
Motorsports (Not including F1)	10.59%
Cricket	10.52%
Tennis	9.53%
Chess	8.97%
Triathlon	8.69%
Biathlon	8.12%
Snooker	7.06%
Golf	6.92%
Swimming	6.85%
Ski Jumping	6.78%
Climbing	5.72%
Martial Arts	5.65%
Handball	5.44%
Darts	5.01%
Speed Skating	5.01%

Football always tops the charts, and Formula 1 continues to rank extremely highly among our userbase. Those who have a little following below 5% include Sailing, Fencing, Surfing, Boxing & Ultra-Running.
Other cycling disciplines

Sport	#
Cyclocross	22.10%
Track Cycling	14.34%
MTB	8.97%
BMX	1.20%

13. Out of the sports you follow, is cycling your favourite sport?

Yes	No
61.79%	38,21%

Good. Makes sense if you hang out here.

Subreddit stats

14. How often do you participate in a /Peloton Race Thread whilst watching a race?

	2015	2016	2018Mar	2018Aug	2019	2020
I always participate in Race Threads during races	2.8%	2%	2.2%	4%	2.5%	3%
I follow Race Threads during races	41.7%	36.7%	38.1%	42.1%	42.5%	38.9%
I often participate in Race Threads during races	16.8%	19%	16.5%	18.9%	15.2%	13%
I rarely/never participate in Race Threads during races	38.7%	41.3%	43.1%	35%	39.8%	45.1%

Slightly less invested than before, reverting back to an older trade.

15. How do you watch Races?

Method	2018Mar	2018Aug	2019	2020
Pirate Streams	62%	46.5%	50.2%	47.9%
Free Local TV	55.7%	64.5%	59.6%	53.9%
Desperately scrabbling for Youtube highlights	37.9%	30.2%	28.2%	24.9%
Paid Streaming services	32.3%	35.4%	38.3%	46.3%

Year on year, paid streaming services go up - the increasing availability of live content legally continues to improve, and so do the numbers on the survey.

16. Where else do you follow races live (in addition to watching them)?

Type	2018Mar	2018Aug	2019	2020
/Peloton race threads	86.2%	83.4%	80.2%	76.9%
Twitter	30.5%	34.7%	33.3%	38.3%
PCS Liveticker	-	-	30.2%	32%
Official tracker (if available)				24%
The Cyclingnews liveticker	26%	23.5%	21.5%	18.9%
Sporza (site/ticker)	1.89%	9.5%	10.8%	10.8%
NOS Liveblog	-	6.8%	7%	9.2%
Steephill	0.52%	13.5%	10.2%	8.2%
/Peloton discord	6.5%	5.4%	7.5%	7.2%
Other cycling forums	15.1%	8.1%	7.6%	7%
feltet.dk	-	2.2%	5.4%	5.2%
Facebook	3.8%	5.4%	4%	4.2%
BBC Ticker	-	3.5%	2.1%	4.1%
DirectVelo	-	1.3%	1.6%	1.8%
Non Cycling Forums	-	1.3%	1.2%	1.2%
/cyc/	-	1.3%	1%	0.6%
/peloton IRC	~0	0.8%	0.4%	0.5%

The PCS liveticker continues to have a strong following, whilst the cyclingnews ticker slowly slides into less usage over time.

17. Do you use /Peloton mostly in classic reddit or redesign when on the desktop?

Type	2018 Aug	2019	2020
Classic	75.1%	67.2%	46.2%
Redesign	24.9%	32.8%	53.8%

Time to abandon ship. The end has come.

18. With what version of reddit do you browse the sub?

Version	2019	2020
Official App	17.9	31.1
Desktop Classic	37.8	25.8
3rd Party App	18.3	17.2
Mobile Web	12.4	14.7
Desktop Redesign	13.7	11.2

Phone browsing is very much in vogue.

19. How did you find the sub?

How	%
Through other forms of reddit, f.e. /bicycling	48.33%
Too long - can't remember	38.65%
Google search	9,11%
My friend told me	2,28%
I wanted to talk about my exercise bike	0.78%
Twitter	0.5%
Lantern Rouge Youtube	0.28%

Other bits and bobs

20. Did you think back in March we would see any more racing this year?

Yes	No
52,81%	47,19%

Despite the threat, we have seen racing again

21. Will we manage to fulfill the rest of the UCI calendar without further Covid-19 issues postponing more races?

Yes	No
25.3%	74.7%

Sorry to you 25%, Amstel, Roubaix & a bunch of other races have falled foul of COVID-19 related cancellations.

22. When did you become aware of Alexander Foliforov?

When	%
Before the 2016 Giro	3,25%
22nd May, 2016	15,55%
On /pelotonmemes in 2020	21,13%
Who?	60,07%

If you didn't know of the man, watching him demolish the Giro field in 2016 on the stage 15 ITT should help to gain understanding

23. Who will win the 2020 Tour de France?

Rider	%
Roglic	52,12%
Bernal	16,57%
Pinot	9,24%
Dumoulin	7,9%
N.Quintana	2,82%
Pogacar	1,41%
Richie Porte	0,35%

We can safely say that most of us were wrong about this one.
That's not a lot of confidence in Richie Porte either, the man who was to finish on the third spot of the podium. Alexander Foliforov (0,23%) had just a tiny number of votes less, and that man wasn't even in the race.

24. What for you was the defining cycling moment of the previous decade?

We had a lot of brilliant suggestions, but these were the clear five favourites when we tabulated the results.

• 2018 Giro - Chris Froome Solo Attack
• 2016 TDF - Chris Froome Running up Ventoux
• 2019 TDF - Landslides, First Columbian Winner, Pinot's bitter abandon - This was one race for the ages
• 2016 Paris-Roubaix - Mostly known for Tom Boonen losing. Also, some guy called Mat won.
• 2019 AGR - MvdP with his incredible catch-up for the win.

Honorable mentions go to the Giro 2018, which had Tom Dumoulin winning, and of almost identical fascination to many of you - Tom Dumoulin going on someones porta-potty in the middle of the stage.
Little bit of recency bias perhaps, but that's better than ignoring that this was for the last decade and firmly insisting Tom Boonens 2005 WC win was the biggest thing. Special shoutout to almost all the Danes present in /peloton who voted for Mads Pedersens WC win last year. It's an understandable reaction.

25. Any suggestions for the Survey?

New Questions

• Could you add a section on rider popularity, same as for the teams?
• Ask how people became interested in cycling
• Ask how people watch cycling (e.g. TV Channels/Streaming etc.)
• If you could be an animal for one day, which one would it be?
• Would you wear a facemask while watching a cycling race live?
• Which race do you look forward to see the most every year?
• Favourite riders of your own country?
• How many bikes do you own?

We promise to feature one of these suggestions in the next survey
Suggestions

• Always have a “no” or “not interested” option

We will try to implement this. But it will also skew results.
About the Survey

• More questions about womens cycling would be nice.
• Less questions about womens cycling

The subscribers are torn on Women's cycling, nearly a 50/50 split there as the survey showed - The moderators at /peloton are firmly in the "more cycling is better" basket, and we will continue to get as good coverage of womens cycling as possible.

• Ask about pelotoncycles membership crossover.

Are you trying to give the moderators PTSD? Because this is how you give the moderators PTSD.

26. Any suggestions for the sub?

• More stationary fitness bike related content

ALSJFLKAJSLDKJAØLSJKD:M:CSAM)=#/()=#=/")¤=/)! - Your moderator seems to be out of function. Please stand by while we find you a new moderator

• Beginner guides

The Weekly threads are great for these types of questions, where several people can contribute and build up once it is understood which information is relevant.

• Allow limited doping talk in result threads.

Our experience is that "limited" will never be so, if we're going to moderate it fairly. Moderating is not a popularity contest, but believe it or not, we're actually trying to be as fair as possible. and for that, we need rules that are not subjective. Unless you have a stationary exercise bike.

• Written original content is always great - recaps, old race reviews or interesting rider bios, etc.
• More non-race threads
• Podcast discussion?
• Try and do some AMAs with pro cyclists, coaches, trainers, etc

All of these are good suggestions, but remember that all of you can also contribute - The mods are sometimes stretched thin, specially in the middle of hectic race schedules. It's easier if one of you has a way to contact a rider or a person of interest and can facilitate the initial communication.

• Standardize major event thread titles for better search.

We've worked on this! The Official Standard is now as follows: [Race Thread] 202x Race Name – Stage X (Class)

• A wiki that explains how races work. Roles of diff riders/support staff. History of racing.

This sounds as a nice community project for the after-season, and hopefully many of you subscribers can contribute.

• Tidy up the sidebar!

Come with suggestions on how to tidy it up!

• Don't assume everyone reading is a man, "thanks, bro". But that goes for all of Reddit. I know you can't fix that.

We have chastised all the mods. They are now perfectly trained in gender-neutral pronouns. Be well, fellow being.

• Have a buy you a beer link for the mods for all the work you do.

If we can implement this for hard liquor, you know we will.

• Remove the spoiler rule during grand tours. It kills the hype.

The spoiler rule is one that is discussed frequently - in general - some users absolutely hate it, but a majority love it. Perhaps we'll include a question in the next survey to see how this divide is exactly.

• Lose the spoiler tag when it is for serious things; Lambrecht death, Jakobsen fall.

We actually do - whenever there is a matter of life or death, we think public information is more important than a spoiler rule. But at the same time, we try to collect all the different posts into one main thread, so to keep things focused and letting very speculative posts meet with hard evidence from other sources.

• Less downvoting of opinions that differ from the fashionable consensus.

This is a tough ask of the internet. While we can agree that voting should be done accordingly to what insights they bring, not subjective opinions, it is very hard to turn that type of thinking around. We can ask of you, our subscribers, that you please think twice about hitting that downvote button, and only do so because of you think a post is factually incorrect, not because it differs with your own subjective opinion.
That's the primary analysis of the survey! Feel free to contribute with how you experience things here!

2020 Childfree Subreddit Survey

1. Introduction

Once a year, this subreddit hosts a survey in order to get to know the community a little bit and in order to answer questions that are frequently asked here. Earlier this summer, several thousand of you participated in the 2020 Subreddit Demographic Survey. Only those participants who meet our wiki definition of being childfree's results were recorded and analysed.
Of these people, multiple areas of your life were reviewed. They are separated as follows:

• Child Status
• General Demographics
• Education Level
• Career and Finances
• Location
• Religion and Spirituality
• Sexual and Romantic Life
• Childhood and Family Life
• Sterilisation
• Childfreedom
• State of the Subreddit

2. Methodology

Our sample is redditors who saw that we had a survey currently active and were willing to complete the survey. A stickied post was used to advertise the survey to members.

3. Results

The raw data may be found via this link.
7305 people participated in the survey from July 2020 to October 2020. People who did not meet our wiki definition of being childfree were excluded from the survey. The results of 5134 responders, or 70.29% of those surveyed, were collated and analysed below. Percentages are derived from the respondents per question.

General Demographics

Age group

Age group	Participants	Percentage
18 or younger	309	6.02%
19 to 24	1388	27.05%
25 to 29	1435	27.96%
30 to 34	1089	21.22%
35 to 39	502	9.78%
40 to 44	223	4.35%
45 to 49	81	1.58%
50 to 54	58	1.13%
55 to 59	25	0.49%
60 to 64	13	0.25%
65 to 69	7	0.14%
70 to 74	2	0.04%

82.25% of the sub is under the age of 35.

Gender and Gender Identity

Age group	Participants #	Percentage
Agender	62	1.21%
Female	3747	73.04%
Male	1148	22.38%
Non-binary	173	3.37%

Sexual Orientation

Sexual Orientation	Participants #	Percentage
Asexual	379	7.39%
Bisexual	1177	22.93%
Heterosexual	2833	55.20%
Homosexual	264	5.14%
It's fluid	152	2.96%
Other	85	1.66%
Pansexual	242	4.72%

Birth Location

Because the list contains over 120 countries, we'll show the top 20 countries:

Country of birth	Participants #	Percentage
United States	2775	57.47%
United Kingdom	367	7.60%
Canada	346	7.17%
Australia	173	3.58%
Germany	105	2.17%
Netherlands	67	1.39%
India	63	1.30%
Poland	57	1.18%
France	47	0.97%
New Zealand	42	0.87%
Mexico	40	0.83%
Brazil	40	0.83%
Sweden	38	0.79%
Finland	31	0.64%
South Africa	30	0.62%
Denmark	28	0.58%
China	27	0.56%
Ireland	27	0.56%
Phillipines	24	0.50%
Russia	23	0.48%

90.08% of the participants were born in these countries.
These participants would describe their current city, town or neighborhood as:

Region	Participants #	Percentage
Rural	705	13.76
Suburban	2661	51.95
Urban	1756	34.28

Ethnicity

Ethnicity	Participants #	Percentage
African Descent/Black	157	3.07%
American Indian or Alaskan Native	18	0.35%
Arabic/Middle Eastern/Near Eastern	34	0.66%
Bi/Multiracial	300	5.86%
Caucasian/White	3946	77.09%
East Asian	105	2.05%
Hispanic/Latinx	271	5.29%
Indian/South Asian	116	2.27%
Indigenous Australian/Torres Straight IslandeMaori	8	0.16%
Jewish (the ethnicity, not religion)	50	0.98%
Other	32	0.63%
Pacific IslandeMelanesian	4	0.08%
South-East Asian	78	1.52%

Education

Highest Current Level of Education

Highest Current Level of Education	Participants #	Percentage
Associate's degree	233	4.55%
Bachelor's degree	1846	36.05%
Did not complete elementary school	2	0.04%
Did not complete high school	135	2.64%
Doctorate degree	121	2.36%
Graduated high school / GED	559	10.92%
Master's degree	714	13.95%
Post Doctorate	19	0.37%
Professional degree	107	2.09%
Some college / university	1170	22.85%
Trade / Technical / Vocational training	214	4.18%

Degree (Major)	Participants #	Percentage
Architecture	23	0.45%
Arts and Humanities	794	15.54%
Business and Economics	422	8.26%
Computer Science	498	9.75%
Education	166	3.25%
Engineering Technology	329	6.44%
I don't have a degree or a major	1028	20.12%
Law	124	2.43%
Life Sciences	295	5.77%
Medicine and Allied Health	352	6.89%
Other	450	8.81%
Physical Sciences	199	3.89%
Social Sciences	430	8.41%

Career and Finances

The top 10 industries our participants are working in are:

Industry	Participants #	Percentage
Information Technology	317	6.68%
Health Care	311	6.56%
Education - Teaching	209	4.41%
Engineering	203	4.28%
Retail	182	3.84%
Government	172	3.63%
Admin & Clerical	154	3.25%
Restaurant - Food Service	148	3.12%
Customer Service	129	2.72%
Design	127	2.68%

Note that "other", "I'm a student", "currently unemployed" and "I'm out of the work force for health or other reasons" have been disregarded for this part of the evaluation.
Out of the 3729 participants active in the workforce, the majority (1824 or 48.91%) work between 40-50 hours per week with 997 or 26.74% working 30-40 hours weekly. 6.62% work 50 hours or more per week, and 17.73% less than 30 hours.
513 or 10.13% are engaged in managerial responsibilities (ranging from Jr. to Sr. Management).
On a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest), the overwhelming majority (3340 or 70%) indicated that career plays a very important role in their lives, attributing a score of 7 and higher.
1065 participants decided not to disclose their income brackets. The remaining 4,849 are distributed as follows:

Income	Participants #	Percentage
$0 to $14,999	851	21.37%
$15,000 to $29,999	644	16.17%
$30,000 to $59,999	1331	33.42%
$60,000 to $89,999	673	16.90%
$90,000 to $119,999	253	6.35%
$120,000 to $149,999	114	2.86%
$150,000 to $179,999	51	1.28%
$180,000 to $209,999	25	0.63%
$210,000 to $239,999	9	0.23%
$240,000 to $269,999	10	0.25%
$270,000 to $299,999	7	0.18%
$300,000 or more	15	0.38%

87.85% earn under $90,000 USD a year.
65.82% of our childfree participants do not have a concrete retirement plan (savings, living will).

Religion and Spirituality

Faith Originally Raised In

There were more than 50 options of faith, so we aimed to show the top 10 most chosen beliefs.

Faith	Participants #	Percentage
Catholicism	1573	30.76%
None (≠ Atheism. Literally, no notion of spirituality or religion in the upbringing)	958	18.73%
Protestantism	920	17.99%
Other	431	8.43%
Atheism	318	6.22%
Agnosticism	254	4.97%
Anglicanism	186	3.64%
Judaism	77	1.51%
Hinduism	75	1.47%
Islam	71	1.39%

This top 10 amounts to 95.01% of the total participants.

Current Faith

There were more than 50 options of faith, so we aimed to show the top 10 most chosen beliefs:

Faith	Participants #	Percentage
Atheism	1849	36.23%
None (≠ Atheism. Literally, no notion of spirituality or religion currently)	1344	26.33%
Agnosticism	789	15.46%
Other	204	4.00%
Protestantism	159	3.12%
Paganism	131	2.57%
Spiritualism	101	1.98%
Catholicism	96	1.88%
Satanism	92	1.80%
Wicca	66	1.29%

This top 10 amounts to 94.65% of the participants.

Level of Current Religious Practice

Level	Participants #	Percentage
Wholly seculanon religious	3733	73.73%
Identify with religion, but don't practice strictly	557	11.00%
Lapsed/not serious/in name only	393	7.76%
Observant at home only	199	3.93%
Observant at home. Church/Temple/Mosque/etc. attendance	125	2.47%
Strictly observant, Church/Temple/Mosque/etc. attendance, religious practice/prayeworship impacting daily life	56	1.11%

Effect of Faith over Childfreedom

Figure 1

Effect of Childfreedom over Faith

Figure 2

Romantic and Sexual Life

Current Dating Situation

Status	Participants #	Percentage
Divorced	46	0.90%
Engaged	207	4.04%
Long term relationship, living together	1031	20.10%
Long term relationship, not living with together	512	9.98%
Married	1230	23.98%
Other	71	1.38%
Separated	18	0.35%
Short term relationship	107	2.09%
Single and dating around, but not looking for anything serious	213	4.15%
Single and dating around, looking for something serious	365	7.12%
Single and not looking	1324	25.81%
Widowed	5	0.10%

Childfree Partner

Is your partner childfree? If your partner wants children and/or has children of their own and/or are unsure about their position, please consider them "not childfree" for this question.

Partner	Participants #	Percentage
I don't have a partner	1922	37.56%
I have more than one partner and none are childfree	3	0.06%
I have more than one partner and some are childfree	35	0.68%
I have more than one partner and they are all childfree	50	0.98
No	474	9.26%
Yes	2633	51.46%

Dating a Single Parent

Would the childfree participants be willing to date a single parent?

Answer	Participants #	Percentage
No, I'm not interested in single parents and their ties to parenting life	4610	90.13%
Yes, but only if it's a short term arrangement of some sort	162	3.17%
Yes, whether for long term or short term, but with some conditions (must not have child custody, no kid talk, etc.), as long as I like them and long as we're compatible	199	3.89%
Yes, whether for long term or short term, with no conditions, as long as I like them and as long as we are compatible	144	2.82%

Childhood and Family Life

On a scale from 1 (very unhappy) to 10 (very happy), how would you rate your childhood?
Figure 3
Of the 5125 childfree people who responded to the question, 67.06% have a pet or are heavily involved in the care of someone else's pet.

Sterilisation

Sterilisation Status

Sterilisation Status	Participants #	Percentage
No, I am not sterilised and, for medical, practical or other reasons, I do not need to be	869	16.96%
No. However, I've been approved for the procedure and I'm waiting for the date to arrive	86	1.68%
No. I am not sterilised and don't want to be	634	12.37%
No. I want to be sterilised but I have started looking for a doctorequested the procedure	594	11.59%
No. I want to be sterilised but I haven't started looking for a doctorequested the procedure yet	2317	45.21%
Yes. I am sterilised	625	12.20%

Age when starting doctor shopping or addressing issue with doctor. Percentages exclude those who do not want to be sterilised and who have not discussed sterilisation with their doctor.

Age group	Participants #	Percentage
18 or younger	207	12.62%
19 to 24	588	35.85%
25 to 29	510	31.10%
30 to 34	242	14.76%
35 to 39	77	4.70%
40 to 44	9	0.55%
45 to 49	5	0.30%
50 to 54	1	0.06%
55 or older	1	0.06%

Age at the time of sterilisation. Percentages exclude those who have not and do not want to be sterilised.

Age group	Participants #	Percentage
18 or younger	5	0.79%
19 to 24	123	19.34%
25 to 29	241	37.89%
30 to 34	168	26.42%
35 to 39	74	11.64%
40 to 44	19	2.99%
45 to 49	1	0.16%
50 to 54	2	0.31%
55 or older	3	0.47%

Elapsed time between requesting procedure and undergoing procedure. Percentages exclude those who have not and do not want to be sterilised.

Time	Participants #	Percentage
Less than 3 months	330	50.46%
Between 3 and 6 months	111	16.97%
Between 6 and 9 months	33	5.05%
Between 9 and 12 months	20	3.06%
Between 12 and 18 months	22	3.36%
Between 18 and 24 months	15	2.29%
Between 24 and 30 months	6	0.92%
Between 30 and 36 months	2	0.31%
Between 3 and 5 years	40	6.12%
Between 5 and 7 years	25	3.82%
More than 7 years	50	7.65%

How many doctors refused at first, before finding one who would accept?

Doctor #	Participants #	Percentage
None. The first doctor I asked said yes	604	71.73%
One. The second doctor I asked said yes	93	11.05%
Two. The third doctor I asked said yes	54	6.41%
Three. The fourth doctor I asked said yes	29	3.44%
Four. The fifth doctor I asked said yes	12	1.43%
Five. The sixth doctor I asked said yes	8	0.95%
Six. The seventh doctor I asked said yes	10	1.19%
Seven. The eighth doctor I asked said yes	4	0.48%
Eight. The ninth doctor I asked said yes	2	0.24%
I asked more than 10 doctors before finding one who said yes	26	3.09%

Childfreedom

Primary Reason to Not Have Children

Reason	Participants #	Percentage
Aversion towards children ("I don't like children")	1455	28.36%
Childhood trauma	135	2.63%
Current state of the world	110	2.14%
Environmental (including overpopulation)	158	3.08%
Eugenics ("I have 'bad genes'")	57	1.11%
Financial	175	3.41%
I already raised somebody else who isn't my child	83	1.62%
Lack of interest towards parenthood ("I don't want to raise children")	2293	44.69%
Maybe interested for parenthood, but not suited for parenthood	48	0.94%
Medical ("I have a condition that makes conceiving/bearing/birthing children difficult, dangerous or lethal")	65	1.27%
Other	68	1.33%
Philosophical / Moral (e.g. antinatalism)	193	3.76%
Tokophobia (aversion/fear of pregnancy and/or chidlbirth)	291	5.67%

95.50% of childfree people are pro-choice, however only 55.93% of childfree people support financial abortion.

Dislike Towards Children

Figure 4

Working With Children

Work	Participants #	Percentage
I'm a student and my future job/career will heavily makes me interact with children on a daily basis	67	1.30%
I'm retired, but I used to have a job that heavily makes me interact with children on a daily basis	6	0.12%
I'm unemployed, but I used to have a job that heavily makes me interact with children on a daily basis	112	2.19%
No, I do not have a job that makes me heavily interact with children on a daily basis	4493	87.81%
Other	148	2.89%
Yes, I do have a job that heavily makes me interact with children on a daily basis	291	5.69%

4. Discussion

Child Status

This section solely existed to sift the childfree from the fencesitters and the non childfree in order to get answers only from the childfree. Childfree, as it is defined in the subreddit, is "I do not have children nor want to have them in any capacity (biological, adopted, fostered, step- or other) at any point in the future." 70.29% of participants actually identify as childfree, slightly up from the 2019 survey, where 68.5% of participants identified as childfree. This is suprising in reflection of the overall reputation of the subreddit across reddit, where the subreddit is often described as an "echo chamber".

General Demographics

The demographics remain largely consistent with the 2019 survey. However, the 2019 survey collected demographic responses from all participants in the survey, removing those who did not identify as childfree when querying subreddit specific questions, while the 2020 survey only collected responses from people who identified as childfree. This must be considered when comparing results.
82.25% of the participants are under 35, compared with 85% of the subreddit in the 2019 survey. A slight downward trend is noted compared over the last two years suggesting the userbase may be getting older on average. 73.04% of the subreddit identify as female, compared with 71.54% in the 2019 survey. Again, when compared with the 2019 survey, this suggests a slight increase in the number of members who identify as female. This is in contrast to the overall membership of Reddit, estimated at 74% male according to Reddit's Wikipedia page [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit#Users_and_moderators]. The ratio of members who identify as heterosexual remained consistent, from 54.89% in the 2019 survey to 55.20% in the 2020 survey.
Ethnicity wise, 77% of members identified as primarily Caucasian, consistent with the 2019 results. While the ethnicities noted to be missing in the 2019 survey have been included in the 2020 survey, some users noted the difficulty of responding when fitting multiple ethnicities, and this will be addressed in the 2021 survey.

Education level

As it did in the 2019 survey, this section highlights the stereotype of childfree people as being well educated. 2.64% of participants did not complete high school, which is a slight decrease from the 2019 survey, where 4% of participants did not graduate high school. However, 6.02% of participants are under 18, compared with 8.22% in the 2019 survey. 55% of participants have a bachelors degree or higher, while an additional 23% have completed "some college or university".
At the 2020 survey, the highest percentage of responses under the: What is your degree/major? question fell under "I don't have a degree or a major" (20.12%). Arts and Humanities, and Computer Science have overtaken Health Sciences and Engineering as the two most popular majors. However, the list of majors was pared down to general fields of study rather than highly specific degree majors to account for the significant diversity in majors studied by the childfree community, which may account for the different results.

Career and Finances

The highest percentage of participants at 21.61% listed themselves as trained professionals.
One of the stereotypes of the childfree is of wealth. However this is not demonstrated in the survey results. 70.95% of participants earn under $60,000 USD per annum, while 87.85% earn under $90,000 per annum. 21.37% are earning under $15,000 per annum. 1065 participants, or 21.10% chose not to disclose this information. It is possible that this may have skewed the results if a significant proportion of these people were our high income earners, but impossible to explore.
A majority of our participants work between 30 and 50 hours per week (75.65%) which is slightly increased from the 2019 survey, where 71.2% of participants worked between 30 and 50 hours per week.

Location

The location responses are largely similar to the 2019 survey with a majority of participants living in a suburban and urban area. 86.24% of participants in the 2020 survey live in urban and suburban regions, with 86.7% of participants living in urban and suburban regions in the 2019 survey. There is likely a multifactorial reason for this, encompassing the younger, educated skew of participants and the easier access to universities and employment, and the fact that a majority of the population worldwide localises to urban centres. There may be an element of increased progressive social viewpoints and identities in urban regions, however this would need to be explored further from a sociological perspective to draw any definitive conclusions.
A majority of our participants (57.47%) were born in the USA. The United Kingdom (7.6%), Canada (7.17%), Australia (3.58%) and Germany (2.17%) encompass the next 4 most popular responses. This is largely consistent with the responses in the 2019 survey.

Religion and Spirituality

For the 2020 survey Christianity (the most popular result in 2019) was split into it's major denominations, Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, among others. This appears to be a linguistic/location difference that caused a lot of confusion among some participants. However, Catholicism at 30.76% remained the most popular choice for the religion participants were raised in. However, of our participant's current faith, Aetheism at 36.23% was the most popular choice. A majority of 78.02% listed their current religion as Aetheist, no religious or spiritual beliefs, or Agnostic.
A majority of participants (61%) rated religion as "not at all influential" to the childfree choice. This is consistent with the 2019 survey where 62.8% rated religion as "not at all influential". Despite the high percentage of participants who identify as aetheist or agnostic, this does not appear to be related to or have an impact on the childfree choice.

Romantic and Sexual Life

60.19% of our participants are in a relationship at the time of the survey. This is consistent with the 2019 survey, where 60.7% of our participants were in a relationship. A notable proportion of our participants are listed as single and not looking (25.81%) which is consistent with the 2019 survey. Considering the frequent posts seeking dating advice as a childfree person, it is surprising that such a high proportion of the participants are not actively seeking out a relationship. Unsurprisingly 90.13% of our participants would not consider dating someone with children. 84% of participants with partners of some kind have at least one childfree partner. This is consistent with the often irreconcilable element of one party desiring children and the other wishing to abstain from having children.

Childhood and Family Life

Overall, the participants skew towards a happier childhood.

Sterilisation

While just under half of our participants wish to be sterilised, 45.21%, only 12.2% have been successful in achieving sterilisation. This is likely due to overarching resistance from the medical profession however other factors such as the logistical elements of surgery and the cost may also contribute. There is a slight increase from the percentage of participants sterilised in the 2019 survey (11.7%). 29.33% of participants do not wish to be or need to be sterilised suggesting a partial element of satisfaction from temporary birth control methods or non-necessity of contraception due to their current lifestyle practices. Participants who indicated that they do not wish to be sterilised or haven't achieved sterilisation were excluded from the percentages where necessary in this section.
Of the participants who did achieve sterilisation, a majority began the search between 19 and 29, with the highest proportion being in the 19-24 age group (35.85%) This is a marked increase from the 2019 survey where 27.3% of people who started the search were between 19-24. This may be due to increased education about permanent contraception or possibly due to an increase in instability around world events.
The majority of participants who sought out and were successful at achieving sterilisation, were however in the 25-29 age group (37.9%). This is consistent with the 2019 survey results.
The time taken between seeking out sterilisation and achieving it continues to increase, with only 50.46% of participants achieving sterilisation in under 3 months. This is a decline from the number of participants who achieved sterilisation in 3 months in the 2019 survey (58.5%). A potential cause of this decrease is to Covid-19 shutdowns in the medical industry leading to an increase in procedure wait times. The proportion of participants who have had one or more doctors refuse to perform the procedure has stayed consistent between the two surveys.

Childfreedom

The main reasons for people choosing the childfree lifestyle are a lack of interest towards parenthood and an aversion towards children which is consistent with the 2019 survey. Of the people surveyed 67.06% are pet owners or involved in a pet's care, suggesting that this lack of interest towards parenthood does not necessarily mean a lack of interest in all forms of caretaking. The community skews towards a dislike of children overall which correlates well with the 87.81% of users choosing "no, I do not have, did not use to have and will not have a job that makes me heavily interact with children on a daily basis" in answer to, "do you have a job that heavily makes you interact with children on a daily basis?". This is an increase from the 2019 survey.
A vast majority of the subreddit identifes as pro-choice (95.5%), a slight increase from the 2019 results. This is likely due to a high level of concern about bodily autonomy and forced birth/parenthood. However only 55.93% support financial abortion, aka for the non-pregnant person in a relationship to sever all financial and parental ties with a child. This is a marked decrease from the 2019 results, where 70% of participants supported financial abortion.
Most of our users realised that did not want children young. 58.72% of participants knew they did not want children by the age of 18, with 95.37% of users realising this by age 30. This correlates well with the age distribution of participants. Despite this early realisation of our childfree stance, 80.59% of participants have been "bingoed" at some stage in their lives.

The Subreddit

Participants who identify as childfree were asked about their interaction with and preferences with regards to the subreddit at large. Participants who do not meet our definition of being childfree were excluded from these questions.
By and large our participants were lurkers (72.32%). Our participants were divided on their favourite flairs with 38.92% selecting "I have no favourite". The next most favourite flair was "Rant", at 16.35%. Our participants were similarly divided on their least favourite flair, with 63.40% selecting "I have no least favourite". In light of these results the flairs on offer will remain as they have been through 2019.
With regards to "lecturing" posts, this is defined as a post which seeks to re-educate the childfree on the practices, attitudes and values of the community, particularly with regards to attitudes towards parenting and children, whether at home or in the community. A commonly used descriptor is "tone policing". A small minority of the survey participants (3.36%) selected "yes" to allowing all lectures, however 33.54% responded "yes" to allowing polite, respectful lectures only. In addition, 45.10% of participants indicated that they were not sure if lectures should be allowed. Due to the ambiguity of responses, lectures will continue to be not allowed and removed.
Many of our participants (36.87%) support the use of terms such as breeder, mombie/moo, daddict/duh on the subreddit, with a further 32.63% supporting use of these terms in context of bad parents only. This is a slight drop from the 2019 survey. In response to this use of the above and similar terms to describe parents remains permitted on this subreddit. However, we encourage users to keep the use of these terms to bad parents only.
44.33% of users support the use of terms to describe children such as crotchfruit on the subreddit, a drop from 55.3% last year. A further 25.80% of users supporting the use of this and similar terms in context of bad children only, an increase from 17.42% last year. In response to this use of the above and similar terms to describe children remains permitted on this subreddit.
69.17% of participants answered yes to allowing parents to post, provided they stay respectful. In response to this, parent posts will continue to be allowed on the subreddit. As for regret posts, which were to be revisited in this year's survey, only 9.5% of participants regarded them as their least favourite post. As such they will continue to stay allowed.
64% of participants support under 18's who are childfree participating in the subreddit with a further 19.59% allowing under 18's to post dependent on context. Therefore we will continue to allow under 18's that stay within the overall Reddit age requirement.
There was divide among participants as to whether "newbie" questions should be removed. An even spread was noted among participants who selected remove and those who selected to leave them as is. We have therefore decided to leave them as is. 73.80% of users selected "yes, in their own post, with their own "Leisure" flair" to the question, "Should posts about pets, travel, jetskis, etc be allowed on the sub?" Therefore we will continue to allow these posts provided they are appropriately flaired.

5. Conclusion

Thank you to our participants who contributed to the survey. This has been an unusual and difficult year for many people. Stay safe, and stay childfree.

That reminds me of a story.
“HELLFIRE AND DALMATIANS!” I shouted to no one in particular.
“What’s the problem, dear?” Esme asks in that way she has of telling me to calm down without having to say it directly.
“This bloody fucking country. A day late and several dollars short.” I fume. “Can’t get a new liquor license because of the bloody COVID. Can’t go to a hotel bar and have a snort because of the bloody COVID. Can’t even slip across the border to Dubai and soak up some room service and buckets of complimentary cocktails because of the bloody COVID.”
Yes, the Sultanate of Oman, in its infinitesimal wisdom, has traditionally followed other GCC countries by at least three months in making any sort of proclamations regarding this latest bugaboo: the hideous, deadly, itchy, loathsome, and possibly serially bent, noxious, pandemical COVID-19; aka, this pandemic’s entry for flu.
Their response is one of immense knee-jerk without first having thought of the consequences.
“Bloody lockdown, 2100 to 0700. What is this, the whole fucking country’s been bad and now being sent to bed without any supper?” I wondered aloud. “Idiot benchodes.”
Even Esme couldn’t come up with a rejoinder to that.
“Plus they close all the bars. And all the hotels. And the fucking bottle shops. It’s not enough that these fucking Muppets jack the ‘sin tax’ on booze and cigars by 100%, now they’re not even legally available.” I swore.
Of course, once you’ve spent even a small portion of the time that I have in the Middle East, you have your connections. Your system. Your access to the seedy underbelly of any society; the venerable Black Market.
Jesus Q. Christ on toast with baked beans, fried tomatoes, black pudding, and mushrooms, I could get most anything in the Middle East, be it legal, shady, or just plain illegal. However, before you all recoil in horror that the venerable Dr. Rocknocker dabbles in the prohibited, just remember: the ends always dojustify the means.
“I'm telling you, Esme dear; this Gulf story is getting too complicated. The weasels have started closing in.” I complain to Es as she hands me a fresh drink.
“Do you think…?” Esme asks expectantly.
Esme is more than ready to go. I’ve used this place as a base of operations for years whilst I wear out the Omani legal system suing those asswipes that think just because they’re local and I’m a kafir, they’re immune to the law.
I’ve spent a long, profitable and time-consuming period of the last few years proving them wrong.
But, time was marching onwards. I agreed with Esme, we’ve milked this particular cash cow dry. It was time to hitch up our bootstraps, call it a day, and get the hell out of Dodge.
But not before I took care of a few loose ends.
Now, the country had recently lost its venerable Sultan, who croaked back in January of this year.
Sultan Qaboos was a good egg, friend to expat and local alike. Did a shitload of good for this benighted Middle East sandpit. Dragged it kicking and screaming out of the 12th century into, well, not exactly the 21st, but a whole hell of a lot closer.
He realized that he needed revolutionary, not evolutionary change in the country. By revolutionary, he needed American, British, Canadian, and the like Western Expats here to do the heavy thinking and lifting and Eastern Expats like Indians, Bangladeshis and Nepalese to do all the scut work.
Yeah, I know. That sounds racist as fuck, but sometimes that’s the way the ball bounced.
Simple evolution of society where Omanis graduated the local equivalent of grade school, through high school, into University, and finally into Entry level jobs in the oil and gas industry wasn’t going to cut it. Took too long and the country needed a serious cash flow now.
So, that’s what he did. And it worked a treat.
Then he died.
And his chosen took over.
Except his chosen was pretty much antithetical to everything the previous and very revered and successful, Sultan wanted.
Soon, there are 100% ‘sin taxes’ aimed directly at the western expats. Tourists included.
Then there’s quotas and ‘Letters of No Objection’, which are impossible to get so that the Eastern Expats can’t switch jobs.
Then, there are Sultanic proclamations of new taxes on tourists, new taxes on fast food, new taxes on this, that and the other. Then there’s, in his own words, “Oman is for Omanis”, blatantly ridiculous and xenophobic Omanization, and the general swipe at all expats.
“GET OUT.”
This was the clear message of the new sultan.
He wanted to take over and possibly nationalize all the oil workings in the country.
Ask Venezuela, Iran, and Myanmar how well that worked out for them.
Then he wants all expats out on their asses. He wants Omanis to take over all the jobs, even though they’re nowhere near educated nor experienced enough for the positions. Then take up the massive GDP slack in lower oil production and oil prices with tourism.
Given everything else, that last line should be enough to get him off the throne.
He’s fucking nuts if he thinks people are going to want to cruise or overland anywhere near a place where foreigners are seen only as a cash supply, are despised, and would welcome these all new 100% tax levies.
Be that as it may, Esme and I decided that we have had enough of 135^O F summer temperatures, virtual house arrest under the guise of a COVID lockdown, and idiots who were the only ones stupid or twisted enough not to vamoose when the great, big bloody letters were clearly written on the wall.
But, there was the physical act of getting out of the country.
Now, I had plenty of strings which I could pull, but I decided I’d start low and save those until we really needed them.
So low, in fact, we went to the US Embassy in Muscat.
“How low can you go?” reverberated through my head.
What a haven of sad-sacks, flubadubs, and third rate hobbyists.
Was either Esme or I surprised that when we finally secured an invitation to the embassy, that required a bit of string-pulling with the ex-Ambassador to Oman, now in Kabul; that besides the peach-fuzz faced Marine guarding the place, we were the only Americans in the joint?
“This is American soil!” I laughed, as I pulled out a huge Cuban cigar and was immediately told to extinguish it. “We’re as American as apple pie and napalm! We file our fucking 1040s every April; I pay my fucking long-distance taxes and demand US assistance to vacate this gloomy place of sandy, sweaty, sultry Sturm und Drang!”
“Shut up, Rock”, Esme chided me, “They don’t understand English. Much less, the florid English the way you trowel it on.”
“Fuckbuckets”, I remonstrated. “Here I had memorized the whole Patrick Henry speech he made to the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia. Troglodytes. No admiration for the classics.”
“Rock, dear?” Esme noted, “It’s almost 1100 hours. Best to get to our appointment.”
True, our appointment was slated for 1100 hours. But around here, anything starting within three hours of the stated time was considered close enough.
We dragged ourselves, none too cheerfully, to the waiting room. Once we pried open the door, there was the usual “If you hear a high pitched wail, hit the deck” signs, and other things one could do while kissing one’s ass goodbye if there was a terrorist attack, we had a whole new slew of bullshit with which to deal.
“Social distancing. 6 feet. Or if you’re from Baja Canada, 1 cow’s length.”
“Must wear a mask. Bandanna, bandoliers, and large-caliber weapons or sombrero optional.”
“No sitting. Faux Naugahyde seats are too difficult to sterilize. You must stand at attention, do not talk amongst yourselves, and remain patient until your number is called.”
“Well, fuck!”, I snorted quietly, as I raised my first secret flask in rapt attention to our old glory of red, white, and blue.
“Good thing they didn’t say nothin’ about getting a load on. If I’m going to be treated like cattle, I’m going to at least have something to chew on in the process.”
“Oh, lord”, Esme grumbled, “You didn’t bring that Japanese Rye Whiskey with you, did you?”
“ルハイム”, I said, which is Japanese for “L’chaim”!
“Oh, hell”, Esme grinned as she borrowed my flask, “This is going to be a long day.”
I began to protest but remembered that I was wearing my Agency-issued field vest. I must have had at least 5 or 6 more flasks lurking around in those pockets somewhere.
Funny aside: they don’t bother with my going through an X-ray machine nor do they confiscate my phone, radio, knives, nor other field equipment when I go to the US Embassy.
It took them almost two solid hours last time, and by the time they got to my Brunton Compass, emergency flasks, a few spare blasting cap boosters, and saw the label sewn into the back of my vest, they decided they’d just send Rack and Ruin some evil Emails and let me pass unmolested.
“I’ll drink to that”, I say as I raise a flask as the locals raise an eyebrow. “Courtesy of Atheists International. We’re here for your children…”
The collective gasps and growls indicate they weren’t happy with me or my betrothed.
“Don’t care, Buckwheat”, I smiled, “Never did, never will. We’re out of here for good. You can curse my name all you want then. But, then again, why you standing in the American Embassy trying to get a visa to visit the land of the great evil empire?”
All the locals and most of the Eastern Expats crowded into a corner as far away from us as they physically could.
“BOO!” I snickered over a shot of Wild Turkey 101 Rye.
“Now serving number 58! Number 58!” came the call over the tannoy.
“Look at that”, I remarked to Es as I stashed both our flasks, “It’s only 12:35. Record time.”
We both shimmy into the glass-fronted and presumably bullet- but not C-4 resistant- glass.
We pick up the telephones there and acknowledge that we are who we said we were.
The East Indian fella, one Harsh Talavalakar, behind the multiple layers of glass asked us why we were here.
“Didn’t you read the appointment card?” I asked, “We’re here to have Uncle Sam get us passage out of this sordid and sultry place.”
“You are American citizens?” he asked, vacantly.
“That’s what it says on appointment cards and these here blue passports,” I replied.
“Well, how was I to know?” he scoffed, returning to his half-consumed powdered sugar doughnut.
“Maybe read the appointment card and see that we are US Citizens here on the behest of Ambassador Bethesda Orun?” I replied.
“Like I have time to read everything that comes across my desk”, he scoffed again.
I tapped on the glass to make certain I had his full attention.
“Look here, Herr Harsh. I’m not sure how you got this job at the American Consulate but want to be very clear with you. My wife and I are residents of this place for the last 20 years. We’re American citizens of very high standing and have more high powered connections than an Arduino in a nuclear power station. We have direct connections with Langley, Virginia and if you want to retain your cushy job, you’ll put down that fucking doughnut and pay very rapt attention to the two Americans standing here who are getting more and more irritated with some Indian benchode that doesn’t think he has to really do his job. You savvy? You diggin’ me, Beaumont”
I guess the benchode got his attention. The two scowls he received from Esme and myself sort of cemented the idea that we’re not too pleased and not with to be trifled.
“Yes, sir?” he said, “And ma’am”, as Harsh quickly corrected himself as the doughnut disappeared.
“We want out. Gone. Vamoose. Outta here. AMF. You got me?” he nods behind the shatterprone glass.
“Now I know the borders are sealed and the airport’s closed, but fuck that. We want out and we want gone for good. I can’t make that much simpler or clearer. Get after it, son.” I said, as seriously as I could.
“Well, sir”, he began, “ The airport’s closed…”
“Are you deaf or born stupid and been losing ground ever since?” I asked, rhetorically. “I know that. We all know that. My HAT knows that. So, what devious little plan does the US Embassy have in store in just such an unsavory situation?”
“Well”, he chokes a bit, “There’s this unofficial lottery where America citizens are issued random numbers and if their number comes up, there are seats made available on special clandestine charter flights.”
Considering that Es and I are some of the last American citizens left in the country, I thought our chances might be pretty good.
“OK”, I said, “Let us have two of your finest numbers.”
“Yes, sir”, he said, “That will be US$500 total.”
“Excuse me?” I said.
“Oh, yes”, he smirked, “US$250 per number. Chances are you’ll never be called, but with these numbers, at least you stand a chance.”
“OK”, I said, “Forget the numbers. I want your name and operating number. I’ve got a report to file that’s due in Virginia before breakfast.”
“Oh, sir”, he smirked more, “I cannot release that information. Thanking you. Now be having a good day.” And he slammed the supposedly bulletproof shield between himself and Es and me.
“Bulletproof? Maybe. Nitro proof? No fucking way.” I groused as I fished out a couple of blasting cap superfast boosters.
“Calm down, dear”, Esme smiled to me as we walked out, “When he wasn’t looking, I took his picture, got his operating number, and full name. In fact, I think I got some information on where he lives…”
In the cab on the way back to our villa, I reviewed and confirmed Es’s subterfuge. Flasks number 6 and 8 needed serious replenishment by the time we arrived home.
“That’s fucking right, Ruin.” I yelled over the phone, “We need extraction. And now. Along with our personal effects and a few hundredweight of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ boxes of stuff we need to be transported.”
“Well, Rock”, Agent Ruin replied, “That’s a tall order. Usually, extraction is for one person and the stuff they’re wearing. Tell you what. Let Rack and I work on it for a week or so. We’ll arrange transport of your personal effects, then we’ll see about getting you and Esme to Dubai. At least there, you can order a plane. Hell, knowing you, you’ll get Tony Stark to fly in and provide door to door service. Sit tight. We’ll be back in touch.”
“Good!” I say as I slam the phone down. With these newfangled cellphone telephone instruments, they lack the same sort of satisfying “KER FUCKING CLANG” the old landlines used to have.
“Es!”, I yelled, “Start packing. We’re due out of here within a week.”
That meant we needed to do some packing triage:
• Things going home with us.
• Things being shipped.
• Things being sold.
• Things being left behind.
• Things no one was about to get their furry little mitts on.
“Oh, fuck!”, I startled. I had just remembered the John Wick-ian stash of various explosives, and adjunct materials I had buried in the basement. Obviously, I couldn’t take it home with me, I couldn’t sell it, and I sure as festering frothing fuck wasn’t going to leave it here.
I needed to call one of my more shifty and swarthy friends and arrange for passage out to the deep, dark desert. Around the area where the new sultan had opened a couple of brand new landfills.
Looks like I was going to expand them a few meters once we disposed of the few hundred kilos of accumulation I attained over the last few years.
See, I’m a packrat. I never leave nor toss anything that might be convenient. Might have a benefit. Might prove to be useful sometime down the line.
So, I’ve accumulated a bit of kit.
Like…well…a few hundred sticks of Du Pont 60% Extra Fast Dynamite. A couple dozen spools of Z-4 Primacord, in various degrees of fullness. A shitload of C-4; enough bricks for a Floydian wall. A couple, well, a dozen, well, two dozen cases of binary liquid explosives. Hey, this stuff is hard to come by…
Continuing, several thousand blasting caps and superfast flash blasting cap boosters. Some mercury fulminate. Some nitrogen triiodide. A couple tens of pounds of PETN. An equal amount of RDX. A few Erlenmeyer flasks full of shit even I’m not certain of what it is…
Oh.
And a few kilos of freshly decanted, raw nitroglycerin; packed in sturdy wooden boxes lined with new fuzzy lamb’s wool.
Not that much. Just 10 or 12 kilos.
Yeah. I can’t leave that here. Even a small accident with this stuff would lay waste to not only our villa; but my landlord’s villa with whom we share a common wall.
Besides, as Omanis go, my landlord was the only dishdasha dressed denizen for which I had any respect or admiration. He was a good guy. I needed to return his villa at least in some semblance of what I received when we first rented from him.
So, I had to dispose of many, many billions of kilojoules of potential energy. I needed to do this out in a distant and far away from prying ears and eyes regions and I needed a truck to haul this stuff out to the range.
To be continued…

Source: TD
Ksenia Bushmeneva, Economist
Dated July 15th, 2020

Highlights

• While the pandemic had devastated the overall labor market, workers in more precarious and non-standard work arrangements have been especially hard-hit.
• Yet, many of these workers do not have access to employment insurance (EI) or run a higher risk than regular workers of not meeting qualification conditions. Only 64% of unemployed Canadians contributed to EI in 2018, meaning that millions would be left without financial assistance in the absence of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).
• Extending EI coverage to non-standard workers does have challenges. However, there is a growing understanding among many countries that these workers require social protection. More than two thirds of the OECD countries offer at least partial coverage for the self-employed. Their experience offers valuable lessons if Canada decides to follow suit.
• The labor market recovery is likely to be uneven and protracted. This is especially true for self-employed and other non-standard workers, since their hours and incomes are more volatile and less protected. Having a more inclusive system with a broader contribution base, which accommodates non-standard workers but also includes a larger number of regular employees would help strengthen the recovery and build on economic gains achieved so far through the temporary CERB program.

​
Chart 1 - Workers in More Precarious Employment See Steep Job Losses

• The COVID-19 pandemic delivered a sudden and devastating blow to the Canadian labor market. Between February and April, millions of people lost their jobs as employment plunged by 16%. Unlike in previous recessions, the impact this time around has been disproportionately felt by workers in more precarious employment arrangements: part-time, temporary and self-employed, who are less likely to have access to unemployment insurance (EI). These types of work arrangement are more prevalent in the service sector industries, many of which have been hard-hit during this downturn. As of June, year-over-year (y/y) employment in part-time and temporary positions was down by 17% and 24%, respectively (Chart 1). For multiple job holders, employment fell by nearly 40%. By comparison, the 7% y/y decline in permanent positions seems relatively modest.
• As dramatic as these declines are, they may still under-represent the pandemic’s toll on employment and incomes. Notably, overall hours worked fell more than employment during the months of lockdown and social distancing. This is especially true for non-standard workers who were more likely to work fewer hours than regular employees. For example, while self-employed workers saw only a 3% drop in employment since February, 43% of self-employed worked less than half of their usual hours in May (Chart 2). By comparison, among all employees, only 9% worked less than half of their usual hours. Moreover, self-employed people who were away from work were more hard-hit financially as they were far less likely to still be paid. Among incorporated self-employed workers with zero hours, less than 1 in 10 received pay compared to 1 in 4 for regular employees in the same situation.

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Chart 2 - COVID-19 Self-employed to Cut Hours Worked Drastically

• As a result of the significant drop in hours worked, a far larger portion of the labor force was underutilized than suggested by the unemployment rate alone. While the official unemployment rate was 12.3% in June (equivalent to 2.45 million people), Statistics Canada noted that nearly 27% of the potential labour force was ‘underutilized’. The significant gap between the drop in the hours worked versus the more modest decline in employment helps to explain why 8.3 million of people have applied the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) (at any point during this crisis).

EI Leaves Many Non-Standard Workers Behind

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Chart 3 - Self-employed Workers Much More Likely to Apply for CERB

• It is clear that self-employed and other non-standard workers were more impacted by the pandemic. Yet these workers usually have the least access to social safety nets, such as EI. Currently, EI unemployment benefits are mostly accessible to employees in the most traditional sense of the word: those that work full-time in a permanent positions for a single employer. By contrast, self-employed workers are not eligible for EIi, and, while those in temporary, contract and part-time positions are eligible, they might not have a chance to accumulate enough insurable hours to qualify because their work arrangements are less stable. Due to lack of EI coverage and significant loss of hours, nearly 40% of self-employed workers applied for CERB benefits, while only 12% and 5% of private and public employees did (Chart 3).
• The reasons why some workers, such as those that are self-employed, are excluded are rooted in the design of the EI program. The program is based on insurance principles, with both employers and employees paying into it through mandatory contributions. The corollary is that those workers who have not paid in, as well as those who have left voluntarily without just cause, are disqualified. Contributions are also intended to make the program self-sufficient in the long-run as has been the case in Canada in recent years. In the case of self-employed workers, there’s also an issue of moral hazard when it comes to determining what represents a valid job separation (more on this in the section below: “What Complicates Offering EI Coverage For Non-Standard Workers”). For this and other reasons, many non-standard workers are currently ineligible for unemployment insurance.

​
Chart 4 - Prevalence of Self-employment Varies by Province

• These gaps in coverage have been growing as the job market has steadily tilted towards more non-standard work arrangements. In 2018, only 64% of unemployed Canadians had contributed to EI.ii Even among workers who have contributed, only 88% had accumulated enough insurable hours to qualify for benefits, which, depending on the regional level of unemployment, ranges between 420-700 hours in the 52-week period. The combined influence implies a relatively low EI coverage ratio for Canadian workers – out of 1.1 million Canadians who were unemployed in 2018, only 56% were eligible for EI.1 The share of unemployed workers who actually received EI benefits is even lower, averaging slightly above 40%.2 This is considerably below the median coverage among developed counties, which is around 60%.3
• Due to data limitations and because non-standard workers include many different types of employment arrangements which may overlap, it is difficult to know with precision the prevalence of non-standard work in Canada. About 15% of Canadian workers are self-employed, while 17% work part-time. In 2016, Statistics Canada estimated that gig workers (self-employed freelancers, on-demand online workers and day labourers) accounted for roughly 8%-10% of Canadian workers. About half of those workers were relying exclusively on their gig income and had no other employment, making them ineligible for EI benefits.4
• The low coverage rate and other limitations of the current EI system have been highlighted extensively in other research literature.5 For example, the fact that benefit eligibility and generosity varies geographically across Canada implies that there’s significant variability in coverage rates across provinces. EI coverage ratios are particularly low in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta – all three provinces which also have above-national prevalence of self-employment (see Charts 4).6
• In order to mitigate these shortcomings in the near term, the Canadian government rolled out the CERB program. Compared to EI, CERB qualification rules are very straightforward and were a quick means to provide financial assistance to an extremely broad and large number of applicants that included previously uninsured workers. CERB’s eligibility replaced the insurable hours threshold with a low and uniform income threshold, with anyone over the age of 15, having earned more than $5,000 in income in 2019 and who have lost their job or hours due to COVID-19. This had provided a helping hand to millions of non-standard workers in Canada. However, it has come with a steep price tag: in just three months since it was launched the government had already paid out $55 billions in benefits (as of July 5th) – nearly three times last year’s annual spending on EI and $28 billion more than it had predicted at the conception of the program.
• CERB coverage was originally offered for 16 weeks, and was recently extended for an additional 8 weeks. However, it will start expiring in September for the earliest recipients, long before the labour market and certain industries are back to health. Unless adjustments are made to the EI program to accommodate non-standard workers, many of them may suddenly find themselves without unemployment assistance.

What Complicates Offering EI Coverage For Non-Standard Workers

• Limited social protection for self-employed and other non-standard workers is not an issue unique to Canada. In most developed countries, non-standard workers have lower social protection compared to regular employees, with unemployment benefits being the least accessible benefit (Charts 5-8). Why is that and what makes implementation of unemployment insurance coverage for self-employed workers challenging for policymakers?
• First of all, providing unemployment insurance for self-employed workers (and other non-standard workers) raises the issue of moral hazard. Put another way, presence of EI coverage may change behavior of self-employed workers making them less likely to take on work and more likely to remain unemployed. Non-standard workers tend to have more variable income, and they are far more likely to have lower future earnings than regular employees due, for example, to smaller assignments and contracts, or flexible pricing on various labor platforms (e.g. Uber). Lower expected future earnings could prompt them to quit in favor of EI benefits. More volatile earnings also make it more challenging to determine the appropriate income replacement rate. However, one solution to this could be to use income averaged over a period of time.
• Secondly, for regular workers, reasons for leaving a job are transparent and can be verified with the employer. This is difficult to achieve in the case of non-standard workers. For example, if they avoid smaller assignments, then they will lose work but this will be impossible for government agencies to determine.
• Some countries (e.g. Sweden, Austria, Slovakia, Spain) offer a voluntary option for self-employed workers to enroll into an employment insurance plan. However, a voluntary arrangement raises the issue of adverse selection. Workers with the highest risks or those that are most likely to make a claim have the greatest incentive to join, which limits the risk-sharing aspect of the program.

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Chart 5 - Maternity and Family Benefits Available to Self-employment
​
Chart 6 - Sickness, Disability, and Work Injury Coverage Available to Self-Employed

• Adverse selection is something that Canada experienced first hand when it introduced the Special Benefits for Self-employed Workers (SBSE) in 2010 through the EI system, which allowed self employed workers to opt-in to gain access to maternity and parental benefits, sickness benefits and compassionate care and caregiver benefits. A 2016 program review study found that the characteristics, such as gender, age and income, of the self-employed workers who participated in the SBSE program were considerably different from the general sample of self-employed workers. In focus group studies, participants also indicated that the likelihood of making a claim was an important consideration for their decision to register for the benefits.7 Other issues with the voluntary scheme included a relatively low take-up rate, which in turn led to relatively high administration costs and required significant government subsidies to cover benefit payouts. Longer-run, low coverage is problematic for voluntary, contributions-financed, unemployment insurance schemes, as adverse selection could lead to a vicious cycle of rising insurance premiums and falling coverage. Meanwhile, achieving high coverage may require significant public subsidies because individual willingness to voluntarily pay for unemployment protection appears to be low.8 For those reasons, voluntary coverage schemes do not appear to work well in the case of non-standard workers.
• Lastly, the current EI system is based on contributions from both employees and employers. In the case of the self-employed, it is not clear who will pick up the tab for the employer portion of the contribution. If the government subsidizes the employer portion, it could create adverse incentives for employers to hire a self-employed worker to reduce non-wage related labor costs. However, a lack of coverage for non-standard workers could also lead to this outcome, contributing to a rise in non-standard forms of employment. For example, in Italy, para-subordinate workers (self-employed but highly depended on one or very few clients) used to pay significantly lower pension contributions and were not eligible for unemployment and sickness benefits, resulting in significantly lower non-wage labor costs and a rising number of para-subordinated workers. In response to this Italy had gradually increased their contribution rates and expanded coverage. Levelling the playing field led to a significant decline in the prevalence of this type of employment. Austria had a similar experience with independent contractors.

Some Solutions Based on The International Experience

• Despite the challenges in expanding unemployment insurance to non-standard workers, there is a growing understanding among many countries that the growing share of non-standard workers need social protection. As a result, more than two thirds of the OECD countries now offer at least partial unemployment benefits to self-employed workers. There’s a great variety of schemes, ranging from mandatory to partial and voluntary coverage, and no two are exactly alike. Still, their experience offers valuable lessons for Canada if it wishes to incorporate self-employed (and potentially other non-standard) workers into its EI system.
• So what are some of the solutions of dealing with the higher moral hazard issue for non-standard workers? Lower level of EI benefits or a more restrictive access could be imposed in order to incentivize individuals to search for work or to keep their current job, and to offset higher level of moral hazard. In Sweden, for example, the moral hazard issue is mitigated through more restrictive access, allowing self-employed workers to claim benefits only after 5 years have passed since the previous claim. There is also a requirement that the firm has been shut down, which acts as an additional deterrent.
• To mitigate adverse selection, upon starting a business, self-employed individuals in Austria have six months to decide whether they would like to participate in the voluntary unemployment insurance scheme, and that decision is binding for 8 years. In Canada, only half of startups survive to their eight-year anniversary, so there is a high likelihood EI could be used at least once by many self-employed business owners during this time period.10
• Generally speaking, based on the OECD review,11 there appears to be a consensus that voluntary coverage schemes, particularly the ones with little or no commitment, such as Canada’s EI SBSE for the self-employed, are quite rare and do not work well to accommodate non-standard employment due to prevalent adverse selection, low participation and the significant public subsidies required to operate them.

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Chart 7 - Unemployment Benefits Coverage Options to Self-employed
​
Chart 8 - Old-age Pensions Coverage Options Available to Self-employed

• On the other hand, mandatory EI contributions and coverage, like the one that currently exists for regular employees, would resolve the issue of adverse selection, hold more closely to the principle of risk sharing within their peer groups, and help to lower program costs. However, results from past surveys conducted in Canada found that there was little support among the self-employed for a mandatory contribution scheme.12 Due to the nature of their work, many self-employed workers indicated a preference to minimize their absence from work (to avoid the risk of losing clients etc.) suggesting that, unless their contribution rates are significantly lower, self-employed workers may get less “value-for-money” from EI programs, such as for example maternity/paternity leave, than traditional employees. The less predictable nature of their income means that they are likely more in need of an income protection program rather than employment insurance.
• Indeed, based on surveys, their preferred financing option for temporary work/income disruptions was a tax-sheltered savings account.13 This is another viable alternative to contributions-funded EI, however, the downside is that individual contribution rates would need to be significantly higher in order to generate sufficient savings because there will be no splitting of contribution between employers and employees. There is also a risk that individuals, particularly those in part-time or low-income jobs, may not be able to accumulate sufficient savings to weather the unemployment or low-earnings spell.
• For other non-standard workers, such as those with flexible hours or doing work for an online platform, one solution would be to introduce a wage premium for employees doing flexible work. This would compensate workers for the added income uncertainty. In Australia, for example, casual workers are entitled to a wage premium or have a minimum hours guarantee.
• Lastly, if the goal is to make social protection more universal and harmonized across all forms of employment, a means-tested social protection system financed through general taxation, similar to that of Australia and New Zealand, could be adopted. However, moving to these systems would require a complete overhaul of Canada’s current contribution-based EI.

Concluding Remarks

• The labor market recovery is likely to be uneven and protracted. Even those workers that were able to return to work could remain underutilized and continue to face lower earnings due to social distancing restrictions and weaker consumer demand for a considerable period of time. This is especially true for self-employed and other non-standard workers, since their hours and incomes are more volatile and less protected. The rollout of CERB during the pandemic has been very helpful to address gaps in coverage within the current EI system. However, looking ahead, a more sustainable and permanent solution is required for workers outside the EI system. Having a more inclusive system with a broader contribution base, which accommodates non-standard workers but also includes a larger number of regular employees through more inclusive qualification criteria would help strengthen the recovery and maintain economic gains that were so far accomplished through CERB.
• The traditional EI system is based on a binary choice of whether or not someone has a job. It is clear that with non-standard forms of employment becoming more prevalent, fewer people fit into that box. These workers need some form of insurance against joblessness as well as income volatility both during the current economic recovery and in the future to address the changing nature of employment relationships. Many OECD countries now offer various options for non-standard workers to participate in unemployment insurance systems, and their experience offers valuable lessons if Canada decides to follow suit.

​

References

1. “Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, 2018”. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/191114/dq191114a-eng.htm
2. Sunil Johal & Erich Hartmann. “Facilitating the Future of Work Through Modernizing EI System”. The Mowat Center. https://ppforum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/PPF-Modernizing-EI-for-Future-of-Work-April-2019-EN.pdf
3. Antonia Asenjo and Clemente Pignatti. “Unemployment insurance schemes around the world: Evidence and policy options.” International Labour Office. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---inst/documents/publication/wcms_723778.pdf
4. Sung-Hee Jeon and Yuri Ostrovsky. “The impact of COVID-19 on the gig economy: Short- and long-term concerns”. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/45-28-0001/2020001/article/00021-eng.pdf?st=x8kZDLV7
5. Sunil Johal & Erich Hartmann. “Facilitating the Future of Work Through Modernizing EI System”. The Mowat Center. https://ppforum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/PPF-Modernizing-EI-for-Future-of-Work-April-2019-EN.pdf Ibid.
6. “Evaluation of the Employment Insurance Special Benefits for Self-employed Workers”. Employment and Social Development Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/corporate/reports/evaluations/2016-ei-special-benefits.html
7. “The Future of Social Protection: what works for non-standard workers?” OECD. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/9789264306943-en/1/2/1/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/9789264306943-en&_csp_=60072f6c81e5afb306d1ad580d284396&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book#chapter-d1e549 Ibid.
8. “Key Small Business Statistics - January 2019”. Statistics Canada. https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/061.nsf/eng/h_03090.html#point1-3 Ibid.
9. “Government Response To The Fifth Report Of The Standing Committee on The Status of Women. Interim Report on the Maternity and Parental Benefits Under Employment Insurance: the Exclusion of Self-Employed Workers.” https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentVieween/39-1/FEWO/report-5/response-8512-391-19
10. “Evaluation of the Employment Insurance Special Benefits for Self-employed Workers”. Employment and Social Development Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social development/corporate/reports/evaluations/2016-ei-special-benefits.html

End Notes

1. Since 2010 self-employed workers can voluntarily participate in EI Special Benefit for Self-Employed Workers (SBSE) to gain access to many life event-type benefits accessible to regular employees, such as maternity and paternity leave programs, leave due to sickness or to care for an sick family member. In addition to this, current EI system allows certain exceptions for some non-standard workers. For example some individuals who work independently as barbers, hairdressers, taxi drivers, drivers of other passenger vehicles are eligible to receive benefits through the regular EI program. Fishermen are also included as insured persons under the EI Fishing Regulations. In the case of the self- employed fishermen, EI qualification is tied to income. In order to qualify for up to 26 weeks of benefit, they need to have earned between $2,500 to $4,200 in the last 31 weeks.
2. The two main reasons for not contributing to the EI program were not having worked in the previous 12 months, and non-insurable employment (which includes self-employment).

Subreddit Demographic Survey 2019

1. Introduction

Once a year, this subreddit hosts a survey in order to get to know the community a little bit and in order to answer questions that are frequently asked here. Earlier this summer, a few thousand of you participated in a massive Subreddit Demographic Survey.
Unfortunately during the process of collating results we lost contact with SailorMercure, who in previous years has completed all of the data analysis from the Google form responses. We were therefore required to collate and analyse the responses from the raw data via Excel. I attach the raw data below for those who would like to review it. For 2020 we will be rebuilding the survey from scratch.
Raw Data
Multiple areas of your life were probed: general a/s/l, education, finances, religious beliefs, marital status, etc. They are separated in 10 sections:

1. General Demographics
2. Education Level
3. Career and Finances
4. Child Status
5. Current Location
6. Religion and Spirituality
7. Sexual and Romantic Life
8. Childhood and Family Life
9. Sterilization
10. Childfreedom

2. Methodology

Our sample is people from this subreddit who saw that we had a survey going on and were willing to complete the survey. A weekly stickied announcement was used to alert members of the community that a survey was being run.

3. Results

5,976 participants over the course of two months at a subscriber count of 588,488 (total participant ratio of slightly >1%)

3.1 General Demographics

5,976 participants in total

Age group

Age group	Participants #	Percentage
18 or younger	491	8.22%
19 to 24	1820	30.46%
25 to 29	1660	27.78%
30 to 34	1107	18.52%
35 to 39	509	8.52%
40 to 44	191	3.20%
45 to 49	91	1.52%
50 to 54	54	0.90%
55 to 59	29	0.49%
60 to 64	15	0.25%
65 to 69	4	0.07%
70 to 74	2	0.03%
75 or older	3	0.05%

84.97% of the sub is under the age of 35.

Gender and Gender Identity

4,583 participants out of 5,976 (71.54%) were assigned the gender of female at birth, 1,393 (23.31%) were assigned the gender of male at birth. Today, 4,275 (70.4%) participants identify themselves as female, 1,420 (23.76%) as male, 239 (4.00%) as non binary and 42 (0.7%) as other (from lack of other options).

Sexual Orientation

Sexual Orientation	Participants #	Percentage
Asexual	373	6.24%
Bisexual	1,421	23.78%
Heterosexual	3,280	54.89%
Homosexual	271	4.53%
It's fluid	196	3.28%
Other	95	1.59%
Pansexual	340	5.69%

Birth Location

Because the list contains over 120 countries, we'll show the top 20 countries:

Country of birth	Participants #	Percentage
United States	3,547	59.35%
Canada	439	7.35%
United Kingdom	414	6.93%
Australia	198	3.31%
Germany	119	1.99%
Netherlands	72	1.20%
France	68	1.14%
Poland	66	1.10%
India	59	0.99%
Mexico	49	0.82%
New Zealand	47	0.79%
Brazil	44	0.74%
Sweden	43	0.72%
Philippines	39	0.65%
Finland	37	0.62%
Russia	34	0.57%
Ireland	33	0.55%
Denmark	31	0.52%
Norway	30	0.50%
Belgium	28	0.47%

90.31% of the participants were born in these countries.

Ethnicity

That one was difficult for many reasons and didn't encompass all possibilities simply from lack of knowledge.

Ethnicity	Participants #	Percentage
Caucasian / White	4,583	76.69%
Hispanic / Latinx	332	5.56%
Multiracial	188	3.15%
East Asian	168	2.81%
Biracial	161	2.69%
African Descent / Black	155	2.59%
Indian / South Asian	120	2.01%
Other	83	1.39%
Jewish (the ethnicity, not the religion)	65	1.09%
Arab / Near Eastern / Middle Eastern	40	0.67%
American Indian or Alaskan Native	37	0.62%
Pacific Islander	24	0.40%
Aboriginal / Australian	20	0.33%

3.2 Education Level

5,976 participants in total

Current Level of Education

Highest Current Level of Education	Participants #	Percentage
Bachelor's degree	2061	34.49%
Some college / university	1309	21.90%
Master's degree	754	12.62%
Graduated high school / GED	721	12.06%
Associate's degree	350	5.86%
Trade / Technical / Vocational training	239	4.00%
Did not complete high school	238	3.98%
Professional degree	136	2.28%
Doctorate degree	130	2.18%
Post Doctorate	30	0.50%
Did not complete elementary school	8	0.13%

Future Education Plans

Educational Aims	Participants #	Percentage
I'm good where I am right now	1,731	28.97%
Master's degree	1,384	23.16%
Bachelor's degree	1,353	22.64%
Doctorate degree	639	10.69%
Vocational / Trade / Technical training	235	3.93%
Professional degree	214	3.58%
Post Doctorate	165	2.76%
Associate's degree	164	2.74%
Graduate high school / GED	91	1.52%

Of our 5,976 participants, a total of 1,576 (26.37%) returned to higher education after a break of 3+ years, the other 4,400 (73.76%) did not.

Degree (Major)	Participants #	Percentage
I don't have a degree or a major	1,010	16.90%
Other	580	9.71%
Health Sciences	498	8.33%
Engineering	455	7.61%
Information and Communication Technologies	428	7.16%
Arts and Music	403	6.74%
Social Sciences	361	6.04%
Business	313	5.24%
Life Sciences	311	5.20%
Literature and Languages	255	4.27%
Humanities	230	3.85%
Fundamental and Applied Sciences	174	2.91%
Teaching and Education Sciences	174	2.91%
Communication	142	2.38%
Law	132	2.21%
Economics and Politics	101	1.69%
Finance	94	1.57%
Social Sciences and Social Action	84	1.41%
Environment and Sustainable Development	70	1.17%
Marketing	53	0.89%
Administration and Management Sciences	52	0.87%
Environmental Planning and Design	24	0.40%
Fashion	18	0.30%
Theology and Religious Sciences	14	0.23%

A number of you commented in the free-form field at the end of the survey, that your degree was not present and that it wasn't related to any of the listed ones. We will try to mitigate this in the next survey!

3.3 Career and Finances

Out of the 5,976 participants, 2,199 (36.80%) work in the field they majored in, 953 (15.95%) graduated but do not work in their original field. 1,645 (27.53%) are still studying. The remaining 1,179 (19.73%) are either retired, currently unemployed or out of the workforce for unspecified reasons.
The top 10 industries our participants are working in are:

Industry	Participants #	Percentage
Health Care and Social Assistance	568	9.50%
Retail	400	6.69%
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation	330	5.52%
College, University, and Adult Education	292	4.89%
Government and Public Administration	258	4.32%
Finance and Insurance	246	4.12%
Hotel and Food Services	221	3.70%
Scientific or Technical Services	198	3.31%
Software	193	3.23%
Information Services and Data Processing	169	2.83%

*Note that "other", "I'm a student" and "currently unemployed" have been disgregarded for this part of the evaluation.
Out of the 4,477 participants active in the workforce, the majority (1,632 or 36.45%) work between 40-50 hours per week, 34.73% (1,555) are working 30-40 hours weekly. Less than 6% work >50 h per week, and 23.87% (1,024 participants) less than 30 hours.
718 or 16.04% are taking over managerial responsibilities (ranging from Jr. to Sr. Management); 247 (5.52%) are self employed or partners.
On a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest), the overwhelming majority (4,009 or 67.09%) indicated that career plays a very important role in their lives, attributing a score of 7 and higher.
Only 663 (11.09%) gave it a score below 4, indicating a low importance.
The importance of climbing the career ladder is very evenly distributed across all participants and ranges in a harmonized 7-12% range for each of the 10 steps of importance.
23.71% (1,417) of the participants are making extra income with a hobby or side job.
From the 5,907 participants not already retired, the overwhelming majority of 3,608 (61.11%) does not actively seek early retirement. From those who are, most (1,024 / 17.34%) want to do so between 55-64; 7 and 11% respectively in the age brackets before or after. Less than 3.5% are looking for retirement below 45 years of age.
1,127 participants decided not to disclose their income brackets. The remaining 4,849 are distributed as follows:

Income	Participants #	Percentage
$0 to $14,999	1,271	26.21%
$15,000 to $29,999	800	16.50%
$30,000 to $59,999	1,441	29.72%
$60,000 to $89,999	731	15.08%
$90,000 to $119,999	300	6.19%
$120,000 to $149,999	136	2.80%
$150,000 to $179,999	67	1.38%
$180,000 to $209,999	29	0.60%
$210,000 to $239,999	22	0.45%
$240,000 to $269,999	15	0.31%
$270,000 to $299,999	5	0.10%
$300,000 or more	32	0.66%

3.4 Child Status

5,976 participants in total
94.44% of the participants (5,644) would call themselves "childfree" (as opposed to 5.56% of the participants who would not call themselves childfree. However, only 68.51% of the participants (4,094) do not have children and do not want them in any capacity at any point of the future. The other 31.49% have a varying degree of indecision, child wanting or child having on their own or their (future) spouse's part.
The 4,094 participants were made to participate in the following sections of the survey.

3.5 Current Location

4,094 childfree participants in total

Current Location

There were more than 200 options of country, so we are showing the top 10 CF countries.

Current Location	Participants #	Percentage
United States	2,495	60.94%
United Kingdom	331	8.09%
Canada	325	7.94%
Australia	146	3.57%
Germany	90	2.20%
Netherlands	66	1.61%
France	43	1.05%
Sweden	40	0.98%
New Zealand	33	0.81%
Poland	33	0.81%

The Top 10 amounts to 87.98% of the childfree participants' current location.

Current Location Qualification

These participants would describe their current city, town or neighborhood as:

Qualification	Participants #	Percentage
Urban	1,557	38.03%
Suburban	1,994	48.71%
Rural	543	13.26%

Tolerance to "Alternative Lifestyles" in Current Location

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3

3.6 Religion and Spirituality

4094 childfree participants in total

Faith Originally Raised In

There were more than 50 options of faith, so we aimed to show the top 10 most chosen beliefs..

Faith	Participants #	Percentage
Christianity	2,624	64.09%
Atheism	494	12.07%
None (≠ Atheism. Literally, no notion of spirituality or religion in the upbringing)	431	10.53%
Agnosticism	248	6.06%
Judaism	63	1.54%
Other	45	1.10%
Hinduism	42	1.03%
Islam	40	0.98%
Buddhism	24	0.59%
Paganism	14	0.34%

This top 10 amounts to 98.3% of the 4,094 childfree participants.

Current Faith

There were more than 50 options of faith, so we aimed to show the top 10 most chosen beliefs:

Faith	Participants #	Percentage
Atheism	2,276	55.59%
Agnosticism	829	20.25%
Christianity	343	8.38%
Other	172	4.20%
Paganism	100	2.44%
Satanism	67	1.64%
Spiritualism	55	1.34%
Witchcraft	54	1.32%
Buddhism	43	1.05%
Judaism	30	0.73%

This top 10 amounts to 96.95% of the participants.

Level of Current Religious Practice

Level	Participants #	Percentage
Wholly secular / Non religious	3045	74.38%
Identify with religion, but don't practice strictly	387	9.45%
Lapsed / Not serious / In name only	314	7.67%
Observant at home only	216	5.28%
Observant at home. Church/Temple/Mosque/Etc. attendance	115	2.81%
Church/Temple/Mosque/Etc. attendance only	17	0.42%

Effect of Faith over Childfreedom

Figure 4

Effect of Childfreedom over Faith

Figure 5

3.7 Romantic and Sexual Life

4,094 childfree participants in total

Current Dating Situation

Status	Participants #	Percentage
Divorce	37	0.90
Engaged	215	5.25
Long term relationship, living together	758	18.51
Long term relationship, not living with together	502	12.26
Married	935	22.84
Other	69	1.69
Separated	10	0.24
Short term relationship	82	2.00
Single and dating around, but not looking for anything serious	234	5.72
Single and dating around, looking for something serious	271	6.62
Single and not looking	975	23.82
Widowed	6	0.15

Ethical Non-Monogamy

Non-monogamy (or nonmonogamy) is an umbrella term for every practice or philosophy of intimate relationship that does not strictly hew to the standards of monogamy, particularly that of having only one person with whom to exchange sex, love, and affection.
82.3% of the childfree participants do not practice ethical non-monogamy, as opposed to 17.7% who say they do.

Childfree Partner

Regarding to currently having a childfree or non childfree partner, excluding the 36.7% of childfree participants who said they do not have a partner at the moment. For this question only, only 2591 childfree participants are considered.

Partner	Participants #	Percentage
Childfree partner	2105	81.2%
Non childfree partner	404	9.9%
More than one partner; all childfree	53	1.3%
More than one partner; some childfree	24	0.9%
More than one partner; none childfree	5	0.2%

Dating a Single Parent

Would the childfree participants be willing to date a single parent?

Answer	Participants #	Percentage
No, I'm not interested in single parents and their ties to parenting life	3693	90.2
Yes, but only if it's a short term arrangement of some sort	139	3.4
Yes, whether for long term or short term, but with some conditions	161	3.9
Yes, whether for long term or short term, with no conditions	101	2.5

3.8 Childhood and Family Life

On a scale from 1 (very unhappy) to 10 (very happy), how would you rate your childhood?

Answer	Participants #	Percentage
1	154	3.8%
2	212	5.2%
3	433	10.6%
4	514	12.6%
5	412	10.1%
6	426	10.4%
7	629	15.4%
8	704	17.2%
9	357	8.7%
10	253	6.2%

3.9 Sterilization

4,094 childfree participants in total

Sterilization Status	Participants #	Percentage
No, I am not sterilized and, for medical, practical or other reasons, I do not need to be	687	16.8
No. However, I've been approved for the procedure and I'm waiting for the date to arrive	119	2.9
No. I am not sterilized and don't want to be	585	14.3
No. I want to be sterilized but I have started looking for a doctor (doctor shopping)	328	8.0
No. I want to be sterilized but I haven't started doctor shopping yet	1896	46.3
Yes. I am sterilized	479	11.7

Already Sterilized

479 sterilized childfree participants in total

Age when starting doctor shopping or addressing issue with doctor

Age group	Participants #	Percentage
18 or younger	37	7.7%
19 to 24	131	27.3%
25 to 29	159	33.2%
30 to 34	92	19.2%
35 to 39	47	9.8%
40 to 44	9	1.9%
45 to 49	1	0.2%
50 to 54	1	0.2%
55 or older	2	0.4%

Age at the time of sterilization

Age group	Participants #	Percentage
18 or younger	4	0.8%
19 to 24	83	17.3%
25 to 29	181	37.8%
30 to 34	121	25.3%
35 to 39	66	13.8%
40 to 44	17	3.5%
45 to 49	3	0.6%
50 to 54	1	0.2%
55 or older	3	0.6%

Elapsed time between requesting procedure and undergoing procedure

Time	Participants #	Percentage
Less than 3 months	280	58.5
Between 3 and 6 months	78	16.3
Between 6 and 9 months	20	4.2
Between 9 and 12 months	10	2.1
Between 12 and 18 months	17	3.5
Between 18 and 24 months	9	1.9
Between 24 and 30 months	6	1.3
Between 30 and 36 months	4	0.8
Between 3 and 5 years	19	4.0
Between 5 and 7 years	9	1.9
More than 7 years	27	5.6

How many doctors refused at first, before finding one who would accept?

Doctor #	Participants #	Percentage
None. The first doctor I asked said yes	340	71.0%
One. The second doctor I asked said yes	56	11.7%
Two. The third doctor I asked said yes	37	7.7%
Three. The fourth doctor I asked said yes	15	3.1%
Four. The fifth doctor I asked said yes	8	1.7%
Five. The sixth doctor I asked said yes	5	1.0%
Six. The seventh doctor I asked said yes	4	0.8%
Seven. The eighth doctor I asked said yes	1	0.2%
Eight. The ninth doctor I asked said yes	1	0.2%
I asked more than 10 doctors before finding one who said yes	12	2.5%

Approved, not Sterilized Yet

119 approved but not yet sterilised childfree participants in total. Owing to the zero participants who were approved but not yet sterilised in the 45+ age group in the 2018 survey, these categories were removed from the 2019 survey.

Age when starting doctor shopping or addressing issue with doctor

Age group	Participants #	Percentage
18 or younger	11	9.2%
19 to 24	42	35.3%
25 to 29	37	31.1%
30 to 34	23	19.3%
35 to 39	5	4.2%
40 to 45	1	0.8%

How many doctors refused at first, before finding one who would accept?

Doctor #	Participants #	Percentage
None. The first doctor I asked said yes	77	64.7%
One. The second doctor I asked said yes	12	10.1%
Two. The third doctor I asked said yes	12	10.1%
Three. The fourth doctor I asked said yes	5	4.2%
Four. The fifth doctor I asked said yes	2	1.7%
Five. The sixth doctor I asked said yes	4	3.4%
Six. The seventh doctor I asked said yes	1	0.8%
Seven. The eighth doctor I asked said yes	1	0.8%
Eight. The ninth doctor I asked said yes	0	0.0%
I asked more than ten doctors before finding one who said yes	5	4.2%

How long between starting doctor shopping and finding a doctor who said "Yes"?

Time	Participants #	Percentage
Less than 3 months	65	54.6%
3 to 6 months	13	10.9%
6 to 9 months	9	7.6%
9 to 12 months	1	0.8%
12 to 18 months	2	1.7%
18 to 24 months	2	1.7%
24 to 30 months	1	0.8%
30 to 36 months	1	0.8%
3 to 5 years	8	6.7%
5 to 7 years	6	5.0%
More than 7 years	11	9.2%

Age when receiving green light for sterilization procedure?

Age group	Participants #	Percentage
18 or younger	1	0.8%
19 to 24	36	30.3%
25 to 29	45	37.8%
30 to 34	27	22.7%
35 to 39	9	7.6%
40 to 44	1	0.8%

Not Sterilized Yet But Looking

328 searching childfree participants in total

How many doctors did you ask so far?

Doctor #	Participants #	Percentage
1	204	62.2%
2	61	18.6%
3	29	8.8%
4	12	3.7%
5	7	2.1%
6	6	1.8%
7	1	0.3%
8	1	0.3%
9	1	0.3%
More than 10	6	1.8%

How long have you been searching so far?

Time	Participants #	Percentage
Less than 3 months	117	35.7%
3 to 6 months	44	13.4%
6 to 9 months	14	4.3%
9 to 12 months	27	8.2%
12 to 18 months	18	5.5%
18 to 24 months	14	4.3%
24 to 30 months	17	5.2%
30 to 36 months	9	2.7%
3 to 5 years	35	10.7%
5 to 7 years	11	3.4%
More than 7 years	22	6.7%

At what age did you start searching?

Age group	Participants #	Percentage
18 or younger	50	15.2%
19 to 24	151	46.0%
25 to 29	86	26.2%
30 to 34	31	9.5%
35 to 39	7	2.1%
40 to 44	2	0.6%
45 to 54	1	0.3%

3.10 Childfreedom

4,094 childfree participants in total
Only 1.1% of the childfree participants (46 out of 4094) literally owns a jetski, but 46.1% of the childfree participants (1889 out of 4094) figuratively owns a jetski. A figurative jetski is an expensive material possession that purchasing would have been almost impossible had you had children.

Primary Reason to Not Have Children

Reason	Participants #	Percentage
Aversion towards children ("I don't like children")	1222	29.8
Childhood trauma	121	3.0
Current state of the world	87	2.1
Environmental (it includes overpopulation)	144	3.5
Eugenics ("I have "bad genes" ")	62	1.5
Financial	145	3.5
I already raised somebody else who isn't my child	45	1.1
Lack of interest towards parenthood ("I don't want to raise children")	1718	42.0
Maybe interested for parenthood, but not suited for parenthood	31	0.8
Medical ("I have a condition that makes conceiving/bearing/birthing children difficult, dangerous or lethal")	52	1.3
Other	58	1.4
Philosophical / Moral (e.g.: antinatalism)	136	3.3
Tokophobia (aversion/fear of pregnancy and/or chidlbirth)	273	6.7

4. Discussion

Section 1 : General Demographics

The demographics remain largely consistent with the 2018 survey. 85% of the participants are under 35, compared with 87.5% of the subreddit in the 2018 survey. 71.54% of the subreddit identify as female, compared with 70.4% in the 2018 survey. This is in contrast to the overall membership of Reddit, estimated at 74% male according to Reddit's Wikipedia page [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit#Users_and_moderators]. There was a marked drop in the ratio of members who identify as heterosexual, from 67.7% in the 2018 survey to 54.89% in the 2019 survey. Ethnicity wise, 77% of members identified as primarily Caucasian, a slight drop from the 2018 survey, where 79.6% of members identified as primarily Caucasian.
Further research may be useful to explore the unusually high female membership of /childfree and the potential reasons for this. It is possible that the results are skewed towards those more inclined to complete a survey.
In the 2018 survey the userbase identified the following missing ethicities:

• Ethnicity
  • Aboriginal Australian;
  • Eurasian;
  • Jewish;
  • Nepali (or put "South Easian" instead of "Indian")

This has been rectified in the current 2019 survey.

Section 2 : Education level

As it did in the 2018 survey, this section highlights the stereotype of childfree people as being well educated. 4% of participants did not complete high school, which is a slight increase from the 2018 survey, where 3.1% of participants did not graduate high school. This could potentially be explained by the slightly higher percentage of participants under 18. 5.6% of participants were under 18 at the time of the 2018 survey, and 8.2% of participants were under 18 at the time of the 2019 survey.
At the 2019 survey, the highest percentage of responses under the: What is your degree/major? question fell under "I don't have a degree or a major" (16.9%) and "other" (9.71%). However, of the participants who were able to select a degree and/or major, the most popular responses were:

Response	Participants #	Percentage
Health Sciences	498	8.33%
Engineering	455	7.61%
Information and Communication Technologies	428	7.16%
Arts and Music	403	6.74%
Social Sciences	361	6.04%

Compared to the 2018 survey, health sciences have overtaken engineering, however the top 5 majors remain the same. There is significant diversity in the subreddit with regards to chosen degree/major.

Section 3 : Career and Finances

The highest percentage of participants (17.7%) listed themselves as a student. However, of those currently working, significant diversity in chosen field of employment was noted. This is consistent with the 2018 survey. The highest percentage of people working in one of the fields listed remains in Healthcare and Social Services. This is slightly down from the 2018 survey (9.9%) to 9.5%.
One of the stereotypes of the childfree is of wealth. However this is not demonstrated in the survey results. 72.4% of participants earn under $60,000 USD per annum, while 87.5% earn under $90,000 per annum. 26.2% are earning under $15,000 per annum. The results remain largely consistent with the 2018 survey. 1127 participants, or 19% chose not to disclose this information. It is possible that this may have skewed the results if a significant proportion of these people were our high income earners, but impossible to explore.
A majority of our participants work between 30 and 50 hours per week (71.2%) which is markedly increased from the 2018 survey, where 54.6% of participants worked between 30 and 50 hours per week.

Section 4 : Child Status

This section solely existed to sift the childfree from the fencesitters and the non childfree in order to get answers only from the childfree. Childfree, as it is defined in the subreddit, is "I do not have children nor want to have them in any capacity (biological, adopted, fostered, step- or other) at any point in the future." 68.5% of participants actually identify as childfree, slightly up from the 2018 survey, where 66.3% of participants identified as childfree. This is suprising in reflection of the overall reputation of the subreddit across reddit, where the subreddit is often described as an "echo chamber".

Section 5 : Current Location

The location responses are largely similar to the 2018 survey with a majority of participants living in a suburban and urban area. 86.7% of participants in the 2019 survey live in urban and suburban regions, with 87.6% of participants living in urban and suburban regions in the 2018 survey. There is likely a multifactorial reason for this, encompassing the younger, educated skew of participants and the easier access to universities and employment, and the fact that a majority of the population worldwide localises to urban centres. There may be an element of increased progressive social viewpoints and identities in urban regions, however this would need to be explored further from a sociological perspective to draw any definitive conclusions.
A majority of our participants (60.9%) live in the USA. The United Kingdom (8.1%), Canada (7.9%), Australia (3.6%) and Germany (2.2%) encompass the next 4 most popular responses. Compared to the 2018 survey, there has been a slight drop in the USA membership (64%), United Kingdom membership (7.3%) Canadian membership (8.1%), Australian membership (3.8%). There has been a slight increase in German membership, up from 1.7%. This may reflect a growing globalisation of the childfree concept.

Section 6 : Religion and Spirituality

A majority of participants were raised Christian (64.1%) however the majority are currently aetheist (55.6%) or agnostic (20.25%). This is consistent with the 2018 survey results.
A majority of participants (62.8%) rated religion as "not at all influential" to the childfree choice. This is consistent with the 2018 survey where 60.9% rated religion as "not at all influential". Despite the high percentage of participants who identify as aetheist or agnostic, this does not appear to be related to or have an impact on the childfree choice.

Section 7 : Romantic and Sexual Life

60.7% of our participants are in a relationship at the time of the survey. This is an almost identical result to the 2018 survey, where 60.6% of our participants were in a relationship. A notable proportion of our participants are listed as single and not looking (23.8%) which is consistent with the 2018 survey. Considering the frequent posts seeking dating advice as a childfree person, it is surprising that such a high proportion of the participants are not actively seeking out a relationship.
Participants that practice ethical non-monogamy are unusual (17.7%) and this result is consistent with the results of the 2018 survey. Despite the reputuation for childfree people to live an unconventional lifestyle, this finding suggests that a majority of our participants are monogamous.
84.2% of participants with partners of some kind have at least one childfree partner. This is consistent with the often irreconcilable element of one party desiring children and the other wishing to abstain from having children.

Section 8 : Childhood and Family Life

Overall, the participants skew towards a happier childhood.

Section 9 : Sterilization

While just under half of our participants wish to be sterilised, 46.3%, only 11.7% have been successful in achieving sterilisation. This is likely due to overarching resistance from the medical profession however other factors such as the logistical elements of surgery and the cost may also contribute. This is also a decrease from the percentage of participants sterilised in the 2018 survey (14.8%). 31.1% of participants do not wish to be or need to be sterilised suggesting a partial element of satisfaction from temporary birth control methods or non-necessity from no sexual activity.
Of the participants who did achieve sterilisation, a majority began the search between 19 and 29, with the highest proportion being in the 25-29 age group (33.2%) This is a drop from the 2018 survey where 37.9% of people who started the search were between 25-29.
The majority of participants who sought out and were successful at achieving sterilisation, were again in the 25-29 age group (37.8%). This is consistent with the 2018 survey results.
Over half of the participants who were sterilised had the procedure completed in less than 3 months (58.5%). This is a decline from the number of participants who achieved sterilisation in 3 months in the 2018 survey (68%). The proportion of participants who have had one or more doctors refuse to perform the procedure has stayed consistent between the two surveys.

Section 10 : Childfreedom

The main reasons for people chosing the childfree lifestyle are a lack of interest towards parenthood and an aversion towards children. Of the people surveyed 63.8% are pet owners, suggesting that this lack of interest towards parenthood does not necessarily mean a lack of interest in all forms of caretaking. The community skews towards a dislike of children overall which correlates well with the 81.4% of users choosing "no, I do not have, did not use to have and will not have a job that makes me heavily interact with children on a daily basis" in answer to, "do you have a job that heavily makes you interact with children on a daily basis?".
A vast majority of the subreddit identifes as pro-choice (94.5%). This is likely due to a high level of concern about bodily autonomy and forced parenthood. However only 70% support financial abortion for the non-pregnant person in a relationship to sever all financial and parental ties with a child.
45.9% identify as feminist, however many users prefer to identify with egalitarianism or are unsure. Only 8% firmly do not identify as a feminist.
Most of our users realised that did not want children young. 60% of participants knew they did not want children by the age of 18, with 96% of users realising this by age 30. This correlates well with the age distribution of participants. Despite this early realisation of our childfree stance, 80.4% of participants have been "bingoed" at some stage in their lives. Only 13% of participants are opposed to parents making posts on this subreddit.
Bonus section: The Subreddit
In light of the "State of the Subreddit" survey from 2018, some of the questions from this survey were added to the current Subreddit Survey 2019.
By and large our participants were lurkers (66.17%). Our participants were divided on their favourite flairs with 33.34% selecting "I have no favourite". The next most favourite flair was "Rant", at 20.47%. Our participants were similarly divided on their least favourite flair, with 64.46% selecting "I have no least favourite". Potentially concerningly were the 42.01% of participants who selected "I have never participated on this sub", suggesting a disparity between members who contributed to this survey and members who actually participate in the subreddit. To further address this, next year's survey will clarify the "never participated" option by specifying that "never participated" means "never up/downvoting, reading posts or commenting" in addition to never posting.
A small minority of the survey participants (6.18%) selected "yes" to allowing polite, well meaning lectures. An even smaller minority (2.76%) selected "yes" to allowing angry, trolling lectures. In response to this lectures remain not tolerated, and removed on sight or on report.
Almost half of our users (49.95%) support the use of terms such as breeder, mombie/moo, daddict/duh on the subreddit, with a further 22.52% supporting use of these terms in context of bad parents only. In response to this use of the above and similar terms to describe parents remains permitted on ths subreddit.
55.3% of users support the use of terms to describe children such as crotchfruit on the subreddit, with a further 17.42% of users supporting the use of this and similar terms in context of bad children only. In response to this use of the above and similar terms to describe children remains permitted on ths subreddit.
56.03% of participants support allowing parents to post, with a further 28.77% supporting parent posts dependent on context. In response to this, parent posts will continue to be allowed on the subreddit. Furthermore 66.19% of participants support parents and non childfree making "I need your advice" posts, with a further 21.37% supporting these dependent on context. In light of these results we have decided to implement a new "regret" flair to better sort out parents from fencesitters, which will be trialed until the next subreddit survey due to concern from some of our members. 64.92% of participants support parents making "I support you guys" posts. Therefore, these will continue to be allowed.
71.03% of participants support under 18's who are childfree participating in the subreddit. Therefore we will continue to allow under 18's that stay within the overall Reddit age requirement.
We asked participants their opinion on moving Rants and Brants to a stickied weekly thread. Slightly less than half (49.73%) selected leaving them as they are in their own posts. In light of the fact that Rants are one of the participant's favourite flairs, we will leave them as they are.
There was divide among participants as to whether "newbie" questions should be removed. An even spread was noted among participants who selected remove and those who selected to leave them as is. We have therefore decided to leave them as is.

5. Conclusion

Thank you to our participants who contributed to the survey. To whoever commented, "Do I get a donut?", no you do not, but you get our appreciation for pushing through all of the questions!
Overall there have been few significant changes in the community from 2018.

Thank you also for all of your patience!